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STORIES 


UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C    AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2012  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hil 


http://www.archive.org/details/justsostoriesforkipling 


JUST  SO    STORIES 


Just    So    Stories 

for    Little    Children 

By 

RUDYARD     KIPLING 

Illustrated  by  the  Author 


New  York 

Doubleday,    Page    &    Company 

1902 


Copyright,    1902,    by   Rudynrd   Kipling 


"  Just  So  Stories."  have  also  been  copy- 
righted separately  as  follows:  How  the 
Whale  Got  His   Tiny    Throat.     Copyright, 

1897.  by  the  Century  Company.  How  the 
Camel  Got  His  Hump.  Copyright,  1897, 
by  the  Century  Company.  How  the  Rhin- 
oceros Got  His  Wrinkly  Skin.       Copyright, 

1898,  by  the  Century  Company.  The  Ele- 
phant's Child.  Copyright,  1900,  by  Rudyard 
Kipling;  Copyright,  1900,  by  the  Curtis 
Publishing  Company.  The  Beginning  of  the 
Armadillos.  Copyright,  1900,  by  Rudyard 
Kipling.  The  Sing  Song  of  Old  Man  Kan- 
garoo. Copyright.  1900.  by  Rudyard  Kip- 
ling. How  the  Leopard  Got  His  Spots. 
Copyright,  1901,  by  Rudyard  Kipling.  How 
the  First  Letter  Was  Written.  Copyright 
1901,  by  Rudyard  Kipling.  The  Cat  that 
Walked  by  Himself.  Copyright,  1902,  by 
Rudyard  Kipling. 


Published  September,    1901 
Second  impression  Oct.,  1902 
Third  impression  Dec,  1902 


CONTENTS 


How  the  Whale  Got  His  Throat.         ...  i 

How  the  Camel  Got  His  Hump      .         .         .  15 

How   the  Rhinoceros  Got  His  Skin      ...  29 

How  the  Leopard  Got  His  Spots     .         .         .  -43 

The  Elephant's  Child 63 

The  Sing-Song  of  Old  Man  Kangaroo    .         .  -85 

The  Beginning  of  the  Armadillos          .         .         .  101 

How  the  First  Letter  was  Written  .         .         .  .123 

How  the  Alphabet  was  Made        ....  145 

The  Crab  that  Played  with  the  Sea          .         .  .   171 

The  Cat  that  Walked  by  Himself         .         .         .  197 
The  Butterfly  that  Stamped       .....  225 


HOW  THE  WHALE  GOT  HIS   THROAT 


the  sea,  once  upon  a  time,  O 
my  Best  Beloved,  there  was  a 
Whale,  and  he  ate  fishes.  He  ate 
the  starfish  and  the  garfish,  and 
the  crab  and  the  dab,  and  the  plaice 
and  the  dace,  and  the  skate  and 
his  mate,  and  the  mackereel  and 
the  pickereel,  and  the  really  truly 
twirly-whirly  eel.  All  the  fishes 
he  could  find  in  all  the  sea  he  ate 
with  his  mouth — so !  Till  at  last 
there  was  only  one  small  fish  left  in 
all  the  sea,  and  he  was  a  small  'Stute 
Fish,  and  he  swam  a  little  behind  the 
Whale's  right  ear,  so  as  to  be  out  of 
harm's  way.  Then  the  Whale  stood 
up  on  his  tail  and  said,  '  I'm  hungry.'  And  the 
small    'Stute   Fish   said   in  a   small   'stute   voice, 


2  Just  So  Stories 

'Noble  and  generous  Cetacean,  have  you  ever 
tasted  Man?' 

'  No,'  said  the  Whale.     '  What  is  it  like  ?  ' 

'  Nice,'  said  the  small  'Stute  Fish.  '  Nice 
but  nubbly.' 

'Then  fetch  me  some,'  said  the  Whale,  and 
he  made  the  sea  froth  up  with  his  tail. 

'One  at  a  time  is  enough,'  said  the  'Stute  Fish. 
'  If  you  swim  to  latitude  Fifty  North,  longitude 
Forty  West  (that  is  magic),  you  will  find,  sitting 
on  a  raft,  in  the  middle  of  the  sea,  with  nothing 
on  but  a  pair  of  blue  canvas  breeches,  a  pair  of 
suspenders  (you  must  not  forget  the  suspenders, 
Best  Beloved),  and  a  jack-knife,  one  ship- 
wrecked Mariner,  who,  it  is  only  fair  to  tell 
you,  is  a  man  of  infinite-resource-and-sagacity.' 

So  the  Whale  swam  and  swam  to  latitude 
Fifty  North,  longitude  Forty  West,  as  fast  as  he 
could  swim,  and  on  a  raft,  in  the  middle  of 
the  sea,  with  nothing  to  wear  except  a  pair  of 
blue  canvas  breeches,  a  pair  of  suspenders  (you 
must  particularly  remember  the  suspenders,  Best 
Beloved),  and  a  jack-knife,  he  found  one  single, 
solitary  shipwrecked  Mariner,  trailing  his  toes 
in  the  water.  (He  had  his  mummy's  leave  to 
paddle,   or   else   he   would   never   have   done   it, 


How  the  Whale  got  his  Throat  3 

because  he  was  a  man  of  infinite-resource-and- 
sagacity.) 

Then  the  Whale  opened  his  mouth  back  and 
back  and  back  till  it  nearly  touched  his  tail,  and 
he  swallowed  the  shipwrecked  Mariner,  and  the 
raft  he  was  sitting  on,  and  his  blue  canvas 
breeches,  and  the  suspenders  (which  you  must 
not  forget),  and  the  jack-knife — He  swallowed 
them  all  down  into  his  warm,  dark,  inside  cup- 
boards, and  then  he  smacked  his  lips — so,  and 
turned  round  three  times  on  his  tail. 

But  as  soon  as  the  Mariner,  who  was  a  man 
of  infinite-resource-and-sagacity,  found  himself 
truly  inside  the  Whale's  warm,  dark,  inside  cup- 
boards, he  stumped  and  he  jumped  and  he 
thumped  and  he  bumped,  and  he  pranced  and 
he  danced,  and  he  banged  and  he  clanged,  and 
he  hit  and  he  bit,  and  he  leaped  and  he  creeped, 
and  he  prowled  and  he  howled,  and  he  hopped 
and  he  dropped,  and  he  cried  and  he  sighed, 
and  he  crawled  and  he  bawled,  and  he  stepped 
and  he  lepped,  and  he  danced  hornpipes 
where  he  shouldn't,  and  the  Whale  felt  most 
unhappy  indeed.  {Have  you  forgotten  the 
suspenders  ?) 

So  he   said  to  the   'Stute   Fish,   '  This  man  is 


THIS  is  the  picture  of  the  Whale  swallowing  the  Mariner  with  his  infinite 
resource-and-sagacity,  and  the  raft  and  the  jack-knife  and  his  suspenders, 
which  you  must  not  forget.  The  buttony-things  are  the  Mariner's  sus- 
penders, and  you  can  see  the  knife  close  by  them.  He  is  sitting  on  the  raft, 
but  it  has  tilted  up  sideways,  so  you  don't  see  much  of  it.  The  whity 
thing  by  the  Mariner's  left  hand  is  a  piece  of  wood  that  he  was  trying  to 
row  the  raft  with  when  the  Whale  came  along.  The  piece  of  wood  is 
called  the  jaws-of-a-gaff.  The  Mariner  left  it  outside  when  he  went  in. 
The  Whale's  name  was  Smiler,  and  the  Mariner  was  called  Mr.  Henry 
Albert  Bivvens,  A.B.  The  little  'Stute  Fish  is  hiding  under  the  Whale's 
tummy,  or  else  I  would  have  drawn  him.  The  reason  that  the  sea  looks 
so  ooshy-skooshy  is  because  the  Whale  is  sucking  it  all  into  his  mouth 
so  as  to  suck  in  Mr.  Henry  Albert  Bivvens  and  the  raft  and  the  jack-knife 
and  the   suspenders.       You   must  never  forget  the  suspenders. 


How  the  Whale  got  his  Throat  7 

very  nubbly,  and  besides  he  is  making  me 
hiccough.     What  shall  I  do  ?  ' 

'  Tell  him  to  come  out,'  said  the  'Stute  Fish. 

So  the  Whale  called  down  his  own  throat  to 
the  shipwrecked  Mariner,  '  Come  out  and  be- 
have yourself.     I've  got  the  hiccoughs.' 

'  Nay,  nay  ! '  said  the  Mariner.  '  Not  so,  but 
far  otherwise.  Take  me  to  my  natal-shore  and 
the  white-cliffs-of-Albion,  and  I'll  think  about 
it.'     And  he  began  to  dance  more  than  ever. 

'  You  had  better  take  him  home,'  said  the 
'Stute  Fish  to  the  Whale.  '  I  ought  to  have 
warned  you  that  he  is  a  man  of  infinite-resource- 
and-sagacity.' 

So  the  Whale  swam  and  swam  and  swam, 
with  both  flippers  and  his  tail,  as  hard  as  he 
could  for  the  hiccoughs ;  and  at  last  he  saw  the 
Mariner's  natal-shore  and  the  white-cliffs-of- 
Albion,  and  he  rushed  half-way  up  the  beach, 
and  opened  his  mouth  wide  and  wide  and 
wide,  and  said,  '  Change  here  for  Winchester, 
Ashuelot,  Nashua,  Keene,  and  stations  on  the 
Fitchbuvg  Road ; '  and  just  as  he  said  '  Fitch ' 
the  Mariner  walked  out  of  his  mouth.  But  while 
the  Whale  had  been  swimming,  the  Mariner,  who 
was    indeed    a    person    of    infinite-resource-and- 


Here  is  the  Whale  looking  for  the  little  'Stute  Fish,  who  is  hiding  under 
the  Door-sills  of  the  Equator.  The  little  'Stute  Fish's  name  was  Pingle. 
He  is  hiding  among  the  roots  of  the  big  seaweed  that  grows  in  front  of 
the  Doors  of  the  Equator.  I  have  drawn  the  Doors  of  the  Equator.  They 
are  shut.  They  are  always  kept  shut,  because  a  door  ought  always  to  be 
kept  shut.  The  ropy-thing  right  across  is  the  Equator  itself;  and  the 
things  that  look  like  rocks  are  the  two  giants  Moar  and  Koar,  that  keep 
the  Equator  in  order.  They  drew  the  shadow-pictures  on  the  doors  of  the 
Equator,  and  they  carved  all  those  twisty  fishes  under  the  Doors.  The 
beaky-fish  are  called  beaked  Dolphins,  and  the  other  fish  with  the  queer 
heads  are  called  Hammer-headed  Sharks.  The  Whale  never  found  the 
little  'Stute  Fish  till  he  got  over  his  temper,  and  then  they  became  good 
friends  again. 


How  the  Whale  got  his  Throat    1 1 

sagacity,  had  taken  his  jack-knife  and  cut  up 
the  raft  into  a  little  square  grating  all  running 
criss-cross,  and  he  had  tied  it  firm  with  his 
suspenders  [now  you  know  why  you  were  not  to 
forget  the  suspenders!),  and  he  dragged  that 
grating  good  and  tight  into  the  Whale's  throat, 
and  there  it  stuck  !  Then  he  recited  the  follow- 
ing Sloka,  which,  as  you  have  not  heard  it,  I 
will  now  proceed  to  relate — 

By  means  of  a  grating 
I  have  stopped  your  ating. 

For  the  Mariner  he  was  also  an  Hi-ber-ni-an. 
And  he  stepped  out  on  the  shingle,  and  went 
home  to  his  mother,  who  had  given  him  leave 
to  trail  his  toes  in  the  water;  and  he  married 
and  lived  happily  ever  afterward.  So  did  the 
Whale.  But  from  that  day  on,  the  grating  in  his 
throat,  which  he  could  neither  cough  up  nor 
swallow  down,  prevented  him  eating  anything 
except  very,  very  small  fish ;  and  that  is  the 
reason  why  whales  nowadays  never  eat  men  or 
boys  or  little  girls. 

The  small  'Stute  Fish  went  and  hid  himself  in 
the  mud  under  the  Door-sills  of  the  Equator. 
He  was  afraid  that  the  Whale  might  be  angry 
with  him. 


12  Just  So  Stories 

The  Sailor  took  the  jack-knife  home.  He 
was  wearing  the  blue  canvas  breeches  when  he 
walked  out  on  the  shingle.  The  suspenders 
were  left  behind,  you  see,  to  tie  the  grating 
with ;    and  that  is  the  end  of  that  tale. 


When  the  cabin  port-holes  are  dark  and  green 

Because   of  the  seas   outside ; 
When  the  ship  goes  wop  (with   a  wiggle  between) 
And  the  steward  falls  into  the  soup-tureen, 

And  the  trunks  begin  to  slide ; 
When  Nursey  lies  on   the   floor   in   a  heap, 
And   Mummy  tells  you  to  let   her   sleep, 
And  you  aren't  waked   or  washed  or  dressed, 
Why,   then  you  will  know   (if  you  haven't  guessed) 
You're  'Fifty  North  and  Forty  West!' 


13 


HOW  THE  CAMEL  GOT  HIS  HUMP 


OW  this  is  the  next 
tale,  and  it  tells  how 
the  Camel  got  his  big 
hump. 

In  the  beginning 
of  years,  when  the 
world  was  so  new  and 
all,  and  the  Animals 
were  just  beginning  to 
work  for  Man,  there 
was  a  Camel,  and  he 
lived  in  the  middle  of  a  Howling  Desert  be- 
cause he  did  not  want  to  work ;  and  besides, 
he  was  a  Howler  himself.  So  he  ate  sticks 
and  thorns  and  tamarisks  and  milkweed  and 
prickles,  most  'scruciating  idle ;  and  when 
anybody  spoke  to  him  he  said  '  Humph  !  ' 
Just  '  Humph  !  '  and  no  more. 

IS 


1 6  Just  So  Stories 

Presently  the  Horse  came  to  him  on 
Monday  morning,  with  a  saddle  on  his  back  and 
a  bit  in  his  mouth,  and  said,  '  Camel,  O  Camel, 
come  out  and  trot  like  the  rest  of  us.' 

'Humph!'  said  the  Camel;  and  the  Horse 
went  away  and  told  the  Man. 

Presently  the  Dog  came  to  him,  with  a  stick 
in  his  mouth,  and  said,  '  Camel,  O  Camel,  come 
and  fetch  and  carry  like  the  rest  of  us.' 

'  Humph !  '  said  the  Camel ;  and  the  Dog 
went  away  and  told  the  Man. 

Presently  the  Ox  came  to  him,  with  the  yoke 
on  his  neck  and  said,  '  Camel,  O  Camel,  come 
and  plough  like  the  rest  of  us.' 

'  Humph  ! '  said  the  Camel ;  and  the  Ox  went 
away  and  told  the  Man. 

At  the  end  of  the  day  the  Man  called  the 
Horse  and  the  Dog  and  the  Ox  together,  and 
said,  '  Three,  O  Three,  I'm  very  sorry  for  you 
(with  the  world  so  new-and-all) ;  but  that 
Humph-thing  in  the  Desert  can't  work,  or  he 
would  have  been  here  by  now,  so  I  am  going  to 
leave  him  alone,  and  you  must  work  double- 
time  to  make  up  for  it.' 

That  made  the  Three  very  angry  (with  the 
world  so  new-and-all),  and  they  held   a   palaver, 


How  the  Camel  got  his  Hump     17 

and  an  indaba,  and  a  punchayet,  and  a  pow-wow 
on  the  edge  of  the  Desert ;  and  the  Camel 
came  chewing  milkweed  most  'scruciating  idle, 
and  laughed  at  them.  Then  he  said  '  Humph  ! ' 
and  went  away  again. 

Presently  there  came  along  the  Djinn  in 
charge  of  All  Deserts,  rolling  in  a  cloud  of  dust 
(Djinns  always  travel  that  way  because  it  is 
Magic),  and  he  stopped  to  palaver  and  pow-pow 
with  the  Three. 

Djinn  of  All  Deserts,'  said  the  Horse,  '  is  it 
right  for  any  one  to  be  idle,  with  the  world  so 
new-and-all  ?  ' 

4  Certainly  not,'  said  the  Djinn. 

'  Well,'  said  the  Horse,  '  there's  a  thing 
in  the  middle  of  your  Howling  Desert  (and 
he's  a  Howler  himself)  with  a  long  neck  and 
long  legs,  and  he  hasn't  done  a  stroke  of 
work  since  Monday  morning.  He  won't 
trot.' 

'  Whew  ! '  said  the  Djinn,  whistling,  '  that's 
my  Camel,  for  all  the  gold  in  Arabia !  What 
does  he  say  about  it  ?  ' 

'  He  says  "  Humph  !  "  '  said  the  Dog  ;  '  and 
he  won't  fetch  and  carry.' 

'  Does  he  say  anything  else  ?  ' 


THIS  is  the  picture  of  the  Djinn  making  the  beginnings  of  the  Magic 
that  brought  the  Humph  to  the  Camel.  First  he  drew  a  line  in  the  air 
with  his  finger,  and  it  became  solid  ;  and  then  he  made  a  cloud,  and  then 
he  made  an  egg — you  can  see  them  both  at  the  bottom  of  the  picture — 
and  then  there  was  a  magic  pumpkin  that  turned  into  a  big  white  flame. 
Then  the  Djinn  took  his  magic  fan  and  fanned  that  flame  till  the  flame 
turned  into  a  magic  by  itself.  It  was  a  good  Magic  and  a  very  kind  Magic 
really,  though  it  had  to  give  the  Camel  a  Humph  because  the  Camel  was 
lazy.  The  Djinn  in  charge  of  All  Deserts  was  one  of  the  nicest  of  the 
Djinns,   so  he   would   never   do   anything   really   unkind. 


18 


»9 


How  the  Camel  got  his  Hump     21 

'  Only  "  Humph  !  "  ;  and  he  won't  plough,' 
said  the  Ox. 

'Very  good,'  said  the  Djinn.  'I'll  humph 
him  if  you  will  kindly  wait  a  minute.' 

The  Djinn  rolled  himself  up  in  his  dust- 
cloak,  and  took  a  bearing  across  the  desert, 
and  found  the  Camel  most  'scruciatingly  idle, 
looking  at  his  own  reflection  in  a  pool  of  water. 

'  My  long  and  bubbling  friend,'  said  the 
Djinn,  '  what's  this  I  hear  of  your  doing  no 
work,  with  the  world  so  new-and-all  ?  ' 

'  Humph  ! '  said  the  Camel. 

The  Djinn  sat  down,  with  his  chin  in  his 
hand,  and  began  to  think  a  Great  Magic,  while 
the  Camel  looked  at  his  own  reflection  in  the 
pool  of  water. 

'  You've  given  the  Three  extra  work  ever 
since  Monday  morning,  all  on  account  of  your 
'scruciating  idleness,'  said  the  Djinn;  and  he 
went  on  thinking  Magics,  with  his  chin  in 
his  hand. 

'  Humph  ! '  said  the  Camel. 

'  I  shouldn't  say  that  again  if  I  were  you,' 
said  the  Djinn ;  '  you  might  say  it  once  too 
often.     Bubbles,  I  want  you  to  work.' 

And   the   Camel   said   '  Humph  ! '  again ;  but 


HERE  is  the  picture  of  the  Djinn  in  charge  of  All  Deserts  guiding  the 
Magic  with  his  magic  fan.  The  camel  is  eating  a  twig  of  acacia,  and  he 
has  just  finished  saying  "  humph  "  once  too  often  (the  Djinn  told  him  he 
would),  and  so  the  Humph  is  coming.  The  long  towelly-thing  growing 
out  of  the  thing  like  an  onion  is  the  Magic,  and  you  can  see  the  Humph 
on  its  shoulder.  The  Humph  fits  on  the  flat  part  of  the  Camel's  back. 
The  Camel  is  too  busy  looking  at  his  own  beautiful  self  in  the  pool  of 
water  to  know  what  is  going  to  happen  to  him. 

Underneath  the  truly  picture  is  a  picture  of  the  World-so-new-and-all. 
There  are  two  smoky  volcanoes  in  it,  some  other  mountains  and  some 
stones  and  a  lake  and  a  black  island  and  a  twisty  river  and  a  lot  of  other 
things,  as  well  as  a  Noah's  Ark.  I  couldn't  drew  all  the  deserts  that  the 
Djinn  was  in  charge  of,  so  I  only  drew  one,  but  it  is  a  most  deserty  desert. 


22 


23 


How  the  Camel  got  his  Hump     25 

no  sooner  had  he  said  it  than  he  saw  his  back, 
that  he  was  so  proud  of,  puffing  up  and  puffing 
up  into  a  great  big  lolloping  humph. 

-'Do  you  see  that?'  said  the  Djinn.  'That's 
your  very  own  humph  that  you've  brought  upon 
your  very  own  self  by  not  working.  To-day 
is  Thursday,  and  you've  done  no  work  since 
Monday,  when  the  work  began.  Now  you  are 
going  to  work.' 

'  How  can  I,'  said  the  Camel,  '  with  this 
humph  on  my  back  ? ' 

'  That's  made  a-purpose,'  said  the  Djinn,  '  all 
because  you  missed  those  three  days.  You  will 
be  able  to  work  now  for  three  days  without 
eating,  because  you  can  live  on  your  humph  ; 
and  don't  you  ever  say  I  never  did  anything  for 
you.  Come  out  of  the  Desert  and  go  to  the 
Three,  and  behave.     Humph  yourself ! ' 

And  the  Camel  humphed  himself,  humph 
and  all,  and  went  away  to  join  the  Three.  And 
from  that  day  to  this  the  Camel  always  wears  a 
humph  (we  call  it  '  hump '  now,  not  to  hurt 
his  feelings) ;  but  he  has  never  yet  caught  up 
with  the  three  days  that  he  missed  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world,  and  he  has  never  yet  learned 
how  to  behave. 


The  Camel's  hump  is  an  ugly  lump 
Which  well  you  may  see  at  the  Zoo  : 

But  uglier  yet  is  the  hump  we  get 
From  having  too  little  to  do. 

Kiddies  and  grown-ups  too-oo-oo, 
If  we  haven't  enough  to  do-oo-oo, 

We  get  the  hump — 

Cameelious  hump — 
The  hump  that  is  black  and  blue  ! 


We  climb  out  of  bed  with  a  frouzly  head 

And  a  snarly-yarly  voice. 
We  shiver  and  scowl  and  we  grunt  and  we  growl 

At  our  bath  and  our  boots  and  our  toys ; 

And  there  ought  to  be  a  corner  for  me 
(And  I  know  there  is  one  for  you) 

When  we  get  the  hump — 

Cameelious  hump — 
The  hump  that  is  black  and  blue  ! 


The  cure  for  this  ill  is  not  to  sit  still, 

Or  frowst  with  a  book  by  the  fire  ; 
But  to  take  a  large  hoe  and  a  shovel  also, 

And  dig  till  you  gently  perspire  ; 

And  then  you  will  find  that  the  sun  and  the  wind, 
And  the  Djinn  of  the  Garden  too, 

Have  lifted  the  hump- — 

The  horrible  hump — 
The  hump  that  is  black  and  blue  ! 

I  get  it  as  well  as  you-oo-oo — 
If  I  haven't  enough  to  do-oo-oo — 

We  all  get  hump — 

Cameelious  hump — 
Kiddies  and  grown-ups  too  ! 

27 


HOW  THE    RHINOCEROS   GOT    HIS 

SKIN 


NCE  upon  a  time,  on  an 
uninhabited  island  on 
the  shores  of  the  Red 
Sea,  there  lived  a  Parsee 
from  whose  hat  the  rays 
of  the  sun  were  reflected 
in  more  -  than  -  oriental 
splendour.  And  the 
Parsee  lived  by  the  Red 
Sea  with  nothing  but  his 
hat  and  his  knife  and  a 
cooking  -  stove  of  the 
kind  that  you  must  particularly  never  touch. 
And  one  day  he  took  flour  and  water  and  cur- 
rants and  plums  and  sugar  and  things,  and  made 
himself  one  cake  which  was  two  feet  across  and 
three     feet    thick.      It    was     indeed    a   Superior 

29 


30  Just  So  Stories 

Comestible  [that's  magic),  and  he  put  it  on  the 
stove  because  he  was  allowed  to  cook  on  that 
stove,  and  he  baked  it  and  he  baked  it  till  it 
was  all  done  brown  and  smelt  most  sentimental. 
But  just  as  he  was  going  to  eat  it  there  came 
down  to  the  beach  from  the  Altogether  Unin- 
habited Interior  one  Rhinoceros  with  a  horn  on 
his  nose,  two  piggy  eyes,  and  few  manners.  In 
those  days  the  Rhinoceros's  skin  fitted  him 
quite  tight.  There  were  no  wrinkles  in  it  any- 
where. He  looked  exactly  like  a  Noah's  Ark 
Rhinoceros,  but  of  course  much  bigger.  All 
the  same,  he  had  no  manners  then,  and  he  has 
no  manners  now,  and  he  never  will  have  any 
manners.  He  said,  '  How  !  '  and  the  Parsee  left 
that  cake  and  climbed  to  the  top  of  a  palm  tree 
with  nothing  on  but  his  hat,  from  which  the 
rays  of  the  sun  were  always  reflected  in  more- 
than-oriental  splendour.  And  the  Rhinoceros 
upset  the  oil-stove  with  his  nose,  and  the  cake 
rolled  on  the  sand,  and  he  -spiked  that  cake  on 
the  horn  of  his  nose,  and  he  ate  it,  and  he  went 
away,  waving  his  tail,  to  the  desolate  and  Ex- 
clusively Uninhabited  Interior  which  abuts  on 
the  islands  of  Mazanderan,  Socotra,  and  the 
Promontories  of  the  Larger  Equinox.     Then  the 


How  the  Rhino  got  his  Skin     31 

Parsee  came  down  from  his  palm-tree  and  put 
the  stove  on  its  legs  and  recited  the  following 
Sloka,  which,  as  you  have  not  heard,  I  will  now 
proceed  to  relate  : — 

Them  that  takes  cakes 
Which  the  Parsee-man  bakes 
Makes  dreadful  mistakes. 

And  there  was  a  great  deal  more  in  that  than 
you  would  think. 

Because,  five  weeks  later,  there  was  a  heat- 
wave in  the  Red  Sea,  and  everybody  took  off 
all  the  clothes  they  had.  The  Parsee  took  off 
his  hat ;  but  the  Rhinoceros  took  off  his  skin 
and  carried  it  over  his  shoulder  as  he  came  down 
to  the  beach  to  bathe.  In  those  days  it  buttoned 
underneath  with  three  buttons  and  looked  like 
a  waterproof.  He  said  nothing  whatever  about 
the  Parsee's  cake,  because  he  had  eaten  it  all ; 
and  he  never  had  any  manners,  then,  since, 
or  henceforward.  He  waddled  straight  into 
the  water  and  blew  bubbles  through  his  nose, 
leaving  his  skin  on  the  beach. 

Presently  the  Parsee  came  by  and  found  the 
skin,  and  he  smiled  one  smile  that  ran  all  round 
his  face  two  times.  Then  he  danced  three 
times    round    the    skin   and    rubbed    his    hands. 


This  is  the  picture  of  the  Parsee  beginning  to  eat  his  cake  on  the 
Uninhabited  Island  in  the  Red  Sea  on  a  very  hot  day;  and  of  the 
Rhinoceros  coming  down  from  the  Altogether  Uninhabited  Interior, 
which,  as  you  can  truthfully  see,  is  all  rocky.  The  Rhinoceros's  skin 
is  quite  smooth,  and  the  three  buttons  that  button  it  up  are  under- 
neath, so  you  can't  see  them.  The  squiggly  things  on  the  Parsee's 
hat  are  the  rays  of  the  sun  reflected  in  more-than-oriental  splendour, 
because  if  I  had  drawn  real  rays  they  would  have  filled  up  all  the  picture. 
The  cake  has  currants  in  it ;  and  the  wheel-thing  lying  on  the  sand  in 
front  belonged  to  one  of  Pharaoh's  chariots  when  he  tried  to  cross  the 
Red  Sea.  The  Parsee  found  it,  and  kept  it  to  play  with.  The  Parsee's 
name  was  Pestonjee  Bomonjee,  and  the  Rhinoceros  was  called  Strorks, 
because  he  breathed  through  his  mouth  instead  of  his  nose.  I  wouldn't 
ask  anything  about  the  cooking-stove  if  /  were  you. 


32 


33 


How  the  Rhino  got  his  Skin     35 

Then  he  went  to  his  camp  and  filled  his  hat 
with  cake-crumbs,  for  the  Parsee  never  ate  any- 
thing but  cake,  and  never  swept  out  his  camp. 
He  took  that  skin,  and  he  shook  that  skin,  and 
he  scrubbed  that  skin,  and  he  rubbed  that  skin 
just  as  full  of  old,  dry,  stale,  tickly  cake-crumbs 
and  some  burned  currants  as  ever  it  could 
possibly  hold.  Then  he  climbed  to  the  top  of 
his  palm-tree  and  waited  for  the  Rhinoceros  to 
come  out  of  the  water  and  put  it  on. 

And  the  Rhinoceros  did.  He  buttoned  it  up 
with  the  three  buttons,  and  it  tickled  like  cake- 
crumbs  in  bed.  Then  he  wanted  to  scratch, 
but  that  made  it  worse  ;  and  then  he  lay  down 
on  the  sands  and  rolled  and  rolled  and  rolled, 
and  every  time  he  rolled  the  cake  crumbs  tickled 
him  worse  and  worse  and  worse.  Then  he  ran 
to  the  palm-tree  and  rubbed  and  rubbed  and 
rubbed  himself  against  it.  He  rubbed  so  much 
and  so  hard  that  he  rubbed  his  skin  into  a  great 
fold  over  his  shoulders,  and  another  fold  under- 
neath, where  the  buttons  used  to  be  (but  he 
rubbed  the  buttons  off),  and  he  rubbed  some 
more  folds  over  his  legs.  And  it  spoiled  his 
temper,  but  it  didn't  make  the  least  difference 
to  the  cake-crumbs.     They  were  inside  his  skin 


THIS  is  the  Parsee  Pestonjee  Bomonjee  sitting  in  his  palm-tree  and  watch- 
ing the  Rhinoceros  Strorks  bathing  near  the  beach  of  the  Altogether 
Uninhabited  Island  after  Strorks  had  taken  off  his  skin.  The  Parsee  has 
put  the  cake-crumbs  into  the  skin,  and  he  is  smiling  to  think  how  they 
will  tickle  Strorks  when  Strorks  puts  it  on  again.  The  skin  is  just  under 
the  rocks  below  the  palm-tree  in  a  cool  place  ;  that  is  why  you  can't  see 
it.  The  Parsee  is  wearing  a  new  more-than-oriental-splendour  hat  of  the 
sort  that  Parsees  wear  ;  and  he  has  a  knife  in  his  hand  to  cut  his  name  on 
palm-trees.  The  black  things  on  the  islands  out  at  sea  are  bits  of  ships 
that  got  wrecked  going  down  the  Red  Sea  ;  but  all  the  passengers  were 
saved   and  went  home. 

The  black  thing  in  the  water  close  to  the  shore  is  not  a  wreck  at  all. 
It  is  Strorks  the  Rhinoceros  bathing  without  his  skin.  He  was  just  as 
black  underneath  his  skin  as  he  was  outside.  I  wouldn't  ask  anything 
about  the  cooking-stove  if  /  were  you. 


36 


37 


I 


How  the  Rhino  got  his  Skin     39 

and  they  tickled.  So  he  went  home,  very  angry 
indeed  and  horribly  scratchy ;  and  from  that 
day  to  this  every  rhinoceros  has  great  folds  in 
his  skin  and  a  very  bad  temper,  all  on  account 
of  the  cake-crumbs  inside. 

But  the  Parsee  came  down  from  his  palm- 
tree,  wearing  his  hat,  from  which  the  rays  of  the 
sun  were  reflected  in  more-than-oriental  splen- 
dour, packed  up  his  cooking-stove,  and  went 
away  in  the  direction  of  Orotavo,  Amygdala, 
the  Upland  Meadows  of  Anantarivo,  and  the 
Marshes  of  Sonaput. 


This  Uninhabited  Island 

Is  off  Cape   Gardafui, 
By  the  Beaches  of  Socotra 

And  the  Pink  Arabian  Sea  : 
But   it's  hot — too   hot  from   Suez 
For  the  likes  of  you  and  me 
Ever  to  go 
In  a  P.  and  O. 
And  call  on  the  Cake-Parsee  ! 


41 


HOW  THE    LEOPARD   GOT   HIS   SPOTS 


jN  the  days  when  everybody  started 
fair,  Best  Beloved,  the  Leopard  lived 
in  a  place  called  the  High  Veldt. 
'Member  it  wasn't  the  Low  Veldt, 
or  the  Bush  Veldt,  or  the  Sour 
Veldt,  but  the  'sclusively  bare,  hot, 
shiny  High  Veldt,  where  there  was 
sand  and  sandy -coloured  rock  and 
'sclusively  tufts  of  sandy  -  yellowish 
grass.  The  Giraffe  and  the  Zebra 
and  the  Eland  and  the  Koodoo  and 
the  Hartebeest  lived  there  ;  and 
they  were  'sclusively  sandy  -  yellow- 
brownish  all  over ;  but  the  Leopard, 
he  was  the  'sclusivest  sandiest- 
yellowish  -  brownest  of  them  all — 
a  greyish-yellowish  catty-shaped  kind  of  beast, 
and     he.     matched     the     'sclusively      yellowish - 

43 


44  Just  So  Stories 

greyish  -  brownish  colour  of  the  High  Veldt  to 
one  hair.  This  was  very  bad  for  the  Giraffe 
and  the  Zebra  and  the  rest  of  them ;  for  he 
would  lie  down  by  a  'sclusively  yellowish - 
greyish -brownish  stone  or  clump  of  grass,  and 
when  the  Giraffe  or  the  Zebra  or  the  Eland  or 
the  Koodoo  or  the  Bush -Buck  or  the  Bonte- 
Buck  came  by  he  would  surprise  them  out  of 
their  jumpsome  lives.  He  would  indeed  ! 
And,  also,  there  was  an  Ethiopian  with  bows 
and  arrows  (a  'sclusively  greyish- brownish - 
yellowish  man  he  was  then),  who  lived  on  the 
High  Veldt  with  the  Leopard ;  and  the  two 
used  to  hunt  together — the  Ethiopian  with  his 
bows  and  arrows,  and  the  Leopard  'sclusively 
with  his  teeth  and  claws — till  the  Giraffe  and 
the  Eland  and  the  Koodoo  and  the  Quagga 
and  all  the  rest  of  them  didn't  know  which 
way  to  jump,  Best  Beloved.  They  didn't 
indeed  ! 

After  a  long  time — things  lived  for  ever  so 
long  in  those  days — they  learned  to  avoid 
anything  that  looked  like  a  Leopard  or  an 
Ethiopian ;  and  bit  by  bit — the  Giraffe  began 
it,  because  his  legs  were  the  longest  —  they 
went  away  from  the  High  Veldt.     They  scuttled 


How  the  Leopard  got  his  Spots  45 

for  days  and  days  and  days  till  they  came  to  a 
great  forest,  'sclusively  full  of  trees  and  bushes 
and  stripy,  speckly,  patchy -blatchy  shadows, 
and  there  .they  hid :  and  after  another  long 
time,  what  with  standing  half  in  the  shade  and 
half  out  of  it,  and  what  with  the  slippery -slidy 
shadows  of  the  trees  falling  on  them,  the  Giraffe 
grew  blotchy,  and  the  Zebra  grew  stripy,  and 
the  Eland  and  the  Koodoo  grew  darker,  with 
little  wavy  grey  lines  on  their  backs  like  bark 
on  a  tree  trunk;  and  so,  though  you  could  hear 
them  and  smell  them,  you  could  very  seldom  see 
them,  and  then  only  when  you  knew  precisely 
where  to  look.  They  had  a  beautiful  time  in 
the  'sclusively  speckly  -spickly  shadows  of  the 
forest,  while  the  Leopard  and  the  Ethiopian  ran 
about  over  the  'sclusively  greyish- yellowish - 
reddish  High  Veldt  outside,  wondering  where  all 
their  breakfasts  and  their  dinners  and  their  teas 
had  gone.  At  last  they  were  so  hungry  that 
they  ate  rats  and  beetles  and  rock -rabbits,  the 
Leopard  and  the  Ethiopian,  and  then  they  had 
the  Big  Tummy-ache,  both  together ;  and  then 
they  met  Baviaan  —  the  dog- headed,  barking 
Baboon,  who  is  Quite  the  Wisest  Animal  in  All 
South  Africa. 


This  is  Wise  Baviaan,  the  dog-headed  Baboon,  Who  is  Quite  the  Wisest 
Animal  in  All  South  Africa.  I  have  drawn  him  from  a  statue  that  I  made 
up  out  of  my  own  head,  and  I  have  written  his  name  on  his  belt  and  on 
his  shoulder  and  on  the  thing  he  is  sitting  on.  I  have  written  it  in  what 
is  not  called  Coptic  and  Hieroglyphic  and  Cuneiformic  and  Bengalic  and 
Burmic  and  Hebric,  all  because  he  is  so  wise.  He  is  not  beautiful,  but 
he  is  very  wise  ;  and  I  should  like  to  paint  him  with  paint-box  colours, 
but  I  am  not  allowed.  The  umbrella-ish  thing  about  his  head  is  his 
Conventional   Mane. 


46 


*fg5555wrop^  m(S 


lw*>  %<i  kMi  ktfrna 


tML&ASCMWi^ 


47 


How  the  Leopard  got  his  Spots   49 

Said  Leopard  to  Baviaan  (and  it  was  a  very 
hot  day),  '  Where  has  all  the  game  gone  ?  ' 

And  Baviaan  winked.     He  knew. 

Said  the  Ethiopian  to  Baviaan,  '  Can  you 
tell  me  the  present  habitat  of  the  aboriginal 
Fauna?'  (That  meant  just  the  same  thing,  but 
the  Ethiopian  always  used  long  words.  He  was 
a  grown-up.) 

And  Baviaan  winked.     He  knew. 

Then  said  Baviaan,  '  The  game  has  gone 
into  other  spots ;  and  my  advice  to  you,  Leopard, 
is  to  go  into  other  spots  as  soon  as  you  can.' 

And  the  Ethiopian  said,  '  That  is  all  very 
fine,  but  I  wish  to  know  whither  the  aboriginal 
Fauna  has  migrated.' 

Then  said  Baviaan,  '  The  aboriginal  Fauna 
has  joined  the  aboriginal  Flora  because  it  was 
high  time  for  a  change;  and  my  advice  to  you, 
Ethiopian,  is  to  change  as  soon  as  you  can.' 

That  puzzled  the  Leopard  and  the  Ethiopian, 
but  they  set  off  to  look  for  the  aboriginal  Flora, 
and  presently,  after  ever  so  many  days,  they 
saw  a  great,  high,  tall  forest  full  of  tree  trunks 
all  'sclusively  speckled  and  sprottled  and 
spottled,  dotted  and  splashed  and  slashed  and 
hatched   and   cross-hatched  with  shadows.     (Say 


50  Just  So  Stories 

that   quickly    aloud,    and  you   will  see  how  very 
shadowy    the    forest    must    have    been.) 

'  What  is  this,'  said  the  Leopard,  '  that  is  so 
sclusively  dark,  and  yet  so  full  of  little  pieces  of 
light?' 

'  I  don't  know,'  said  the  Ethiopian,  '  but  it 
ought  to  be  the  aboriginal  Flora.  I  can  smell 
Giraffe,  and  I  can  hear  Giraffe,  but  I  can't  see 
Giraffe.' 

'  That's  curious,'  said  the  Leopard.  '  I 
suppose  it  is  because  we  have  just  come  in  out 
of  the  sunshine.  I  can  smell  Zebra,  and  I  can 
hear  Zebra,  but  I  can't  see  Zebra.' 

'Wait  a  bit,'  said  the  Ethiopian.  'It's  a 
long  time  since  we've  hunted  'em.  Perhaps 
we've  forgotten  what  they  were  like.' 

Fiddle  !  '  said  the  Leopard.  '  I  remember 
them  perfectly  on  the  High  Veldt,  especially 
their  marrow-bones.  Giraffe  is  about  seventeen 
feet  high,  of  a  'sclusively  fulvous  golden-yellow 
from  head  to  heel ;  and  Zebra  is  about  four 
and  a  half  feet  high,  of  a  'sclusively  grey-fawn 
colour  from  head  to  heel.' 

'  Umm,'  said  the  Ethiopian,  looking  into 
the  speckly-spickly  shadows  of  the  aboriginal 
Flora-forest.      '  Then    they    ought    to    show    up 


How  the  Leopard  got  his  Spots  51 

in  this  dark  place  like  ripe  bananas  in  a  smoke- 
house.' 

But  they  didn't.  The  Leopard  and  the 
Ethiopian  hunted  all  day  ;  and  though  they 
could  smell  them  and  hear  them,  they  never  saw 
one  of  them. 

'  For  goodness'  sake,'  said  the  Leopard  at 
tea-time,  '  let  us  wait  till  it  gets  dark.  This 
daylight  hunting  is  a  perfect  scandal.' 

So  they  waited  till  dark,  and  then  the 
Leopard  heard  something  breathing  sniffily  in 
the  starlight  that  fell  all  stripy  through  the 
branches,  and  he  jumped  at  the  noise,  and  it 
smelt  like  Zebra,  and  it  felt  like  Zebra,  and 
when  he  knocked  it  down  it  kicked  like 
Zebra,  but  he  couldn't  see  it.  So  he  said, 
'  Be  quiet,  O  you  person  without  any  form. 
I  am  going  to  sit  on  your  head  till  morning, 
because  there  is  something  about  you  that  I 
don't  understand.' 

Presently  he  heard  a  grunt  and  a  crash  and 
a  scramble,  and  the  Ethiopian  called  out,  '  I've 
caught  a  thing  that  I  can't  see.  It  smells  like 
Giraffe,  and  it  kicks  like  Giraffe,  but  it  hasn't 
any  form.' 

'  Don't    you    trust    it,'     said     the     Leopard. 


52  Just  So  Stories 

'  Sit  on  its  head  till  the   morning — same  as  me. 
They  haven't  any  form — any  of  'em.' 

So  they  sat  down  on  them  hard  till  bright 
morning-time,  and  then  Leopard  said,  '  What 
have  you  at  your  end  of  the  table,  Brother?  ' 

The  Ethiopian  scratched  his  head  and  said, 
'  It  ought  to  be  'sclusively  a  rich  fulvous  orange- 
tawny  from  head  to  heel,  and  it  ought  to  be 
Giraffe ;  but  it  is  covered  all  over  with  chestnut 
blotches.  What  have  you  at  your  end  of  the 
table,  Brother?  ' 

And  the  Leopard  scratched  his  head  and  said, 
'  It  ought  to  be  'sclusively  a  delicate  greyish- 
fawn,  and  it  ought  to  be  Zebra;  but  it  is 
covered  all  over  with  black  and  purple  stripes. 
What  in  the  world  have  you  been  doing  to 
yourself,  Zebra  ?  Don't  you  know  that  if  you 
were  on  the  High  Veldt  I  could  see  you  ten 
miles  off?     You  haven't  any  form.' 

'  Yes,'  said  the  Zebra,  '  but  this  isn't  the 
High  Veldt.     Can't  you  see  ?  ' 

'  I  can  now,'  said  the  Leopard.  '  But  I 
couldn't  all  yesterday.     How  is  it  done  ?  ' 

'Let  us  up,'  said  the  Zebra,  'and  we  will 
show  you.' 


How  the  Leopard  got  his  Spots   53 

They  let  the  Zebra  and  the  Giraffe  get  up  ; 
and  Zebra  moved  away  to  some  little  thorn- 
bushes  where  the  sunlight  fell  all  stripy,  and 
Giraffe  moved  off  to  some  tallish  trees  where 
the  shadows  fell  all  blotchy. 

'  Now  watch,'  said  the  Zebra  and  the 
Giraffe.  '  This  is  the  way  it's  done.  One — 
two — three  !     And  where's  your  breakfast  ?  ' 

Leopard  stared,  and  Ethiopian  stared,  but  all 
they  could  see  were  stripy  shadows  and  blotched 
shadows  in  the  forest,  but  never  a  sign  of  Zebra 
and  Giraffe.  They  had  just  walked  off  and 
hidden  themselves  in  the  shadowy  forest. 

'  Hi  !  Hi !  '  said  the  Ethiopian.  '  That's  a 
trick  worth  learning.  Take  a  lesson  by  it, 
Leopard.  You  show  up  in  this  dark  place 
like  a  bar  of  soap  in  a  coal-scuttle.' 

'  Ho  !  Ho  ! '  said  the  Leopard.  '  Would  it 
surprise  you  very  much  to  know  that  you  show 
up  in  this  dark  place  like  a  mustard-plaster  on 
a  sack  of  coals  ?  ' 

'Well,   calling    names    won't    catch    dinner, 
said  the  Ethiopian.     '  The  long  and  the  little  of 
it  is  that  we  don't  match   our  backgrounds.     I'm 
going     to     take     Baviaan's     advice.       He     told 
me   I  ought    to    change  ;    and    as   I've   nothing 


54  Just  So  Stories 

to  change  except  my  skin  I'm  going  to  change 
that.' 

'  What  to  ? '  said  the  Leopard,  tremend- 
ously excited. 

1  To  a  nice  working  blackish  -  brownish 
colour,  with  a  little  purple  in  it,  and  touches  of 
slaty-blue.  It  will  be  the  very  thing  for  hiding 
in  hollows  and  behind  trees.' 

So  he  changed  his  skin  then  and  there,  and 
the  Leopard  was  more  excited  than  ever ;  he 
had  never  seen  a  man  change  his  skin  before. 

'  But  what  about  me  ? '  he  said,  when  the 
Ethiopian  had  worked  his  last  little  finger  into 
his  fine  new  black  skin. 

'  You  take  Baviaan's  advice  too.  He  told 
you  to  go  into  spots.' 

'  So  I  did,'  said  the  Leopard.  '  I  went  into 
other  spots  as  fast  as  I  could.  I  went  into 
this  spot  with  you,  and  a  lot  of  good  it  has 
done  me.' 

'  Oh,'  said  the  Ethiopian,  '  Baviaan  didn't 
mean  spots  in  South  Africa.  He  meant  spots 
on  your  skin.' 

'What's  the  use  of  that?'  said  the  Leopard. 

'  Think  of  Giraffe,'  said  the  Ethiopian.  '  Or 
if   you    prefer   stripes,    think    of     Zebra.      They 


How  the  Leopard  got  his  Spots   55 

find  their  spots  and  stripes  give  them  per-fect 
satisfaction.' 

'  Umm,'  said  the  Leopard.  '  I  wouldn't 
look  like  Zebra — not  for  ever  so.' 

'  Well,  make  up  your  mind,'  said  the 
Ethiopian,  '  because  I'd  hate  to  go  hunting 
without  you,  but  I  must  if  you  insist  on  looking 
like  a  sun-flower  against  a  tarred  fence.' 

'  I'll  take  spots,  then,'  said  the  Leopard;  'but 
don't  make  'em  too  vulgar-big.  I  wouldn't 
look  like  Giraffe — not  for  ever  so.' 

'  I'll  make  'em  with  the  tips  of  my  fingers,' 
said  the  Ethiopian.  '  There's  plenty  of  black 
left  on  my  skin  still.     Stand  over  ! ' 

Then  the  Ethiopian  put  his  five  fingers  close 
together  (there  was  plenty  of  black  left  on  his 
new  skin  still)  and  pressed  them  all  over  the 
Leopard,  and  wherever  the  five  fingers  touched 
they  left  five  little  black  marks,  all  close  to- 
gether. You  can  see  them  on  any  Leopard's 
skin  you  like,  Best  Beloved.  Sometimes  the 
fingers  slipped  and  the  marks  got  a  little  blurred ; 
but  if  you  look  closely  at  any  Leopard  now  you 
will  see  that  there  are  always  five  spots — off 
five  fat  black  finger-tips. 

'  Now  you  are  a  beauty  ! '   said  the  Ethiopian. 


This  is  the  picture  of  the  Leopard  and  the  Ethiopian  after  they  had 
taken  Wise  Baviaan's  advice  and  the  Leopard  had  gone  into  other  spots 
and  the  Ethiopian  had  changed  his  skin.  The  Ethiopian  was  really  a  negro, 
and  so  his  name  was  Sambo.  The  Leopard  was  called  Spots,  and  he  has 
been  called  Spots  ever  since.  They  are  out  hunting  in  the  spickly-speckly 
forest,  and  they  are  looking  for  Mr.  One  -  Two  -  Three  -  Where's- your  - 
Breakfast.  If  you  look  a  little  you  will  see  Mr.  One  -  Two -Three  not 
far  away.  The  Ethiopian  has  hidden  behind  a  splotchy  -  blotchy  tree 
because  it  matches  his  skin,  and  the  Leopard  is  lying  beside  a  spickly- 
speckly  bank  of  stones  because  it  matches  his  spots.  Mr.  One-Two- 
Three- Where's-your-Breakfast  is  standing  up  eating  leaves  from  a  tall 
tree.       This  is  really  a  puzzle-picture  like  'Find  the  Cat.' 


56 


57 


How  the  Leopard  got  his  Spots   59 

'  You  can  lie  out  on  the  bare  ground  and  look 
like  a  heap  of  pebbles.  You  can  lie  out  on  the 
naked  rocks  and  look  like  a  piece  of  pudding- 
stone.  You  can  lie  out  on  a  leafy  branch  and 
look  like  sunshine  sifting  through  the  leaves ; 
and  you  can  lie  right  across  the  centre  of  a  path 
and  look  like  nothing  in  particular.  Think  of 
that  and  purr ! ' 

'  But  if  I'm  all  this,'  said  the  Leopard,  'why 
didn't  you  go  spotty  too  ? ' 

'Oh,  plain  black's  best  for  a  nigger,'  said  the 
Ethiopian.  '  Now  come  along  and  we'll  see  if 
we  can't  get  even  with  Mr.  One-Two-Three- 
Where's-your-Breakfast !  ' 

So  they  went  away  and  lived  happily  ever 
afterward,  Best  Beloved.     That  is  all. 

Oh,  now  and  then  you  will  hear  grown-ups 
say,  '  Can  the  Ethiopian  change  his  skin  or 
the  Leopard  his  spots  ?  '  I  don't  think  even 
grown  -  ups  would  keep  on  saying  such  a 
silly  thing  if  the  Leopard  and  the  Ethiopian 
hadn't  done  it  once — do  you  ?  But  they  will 
never  do  it  again,  Best  Beloved.  They  are 
quite  contented  as  they  are. 


I  AM  the  Most  Wise   Baviaan,   saying  in  most   wise  tones, 

Let   us  melt   into  the   landscape — just   us   two  by  our  lones.' 
People    have     come  —  in     a     carriage  —  calling.        But     Mummy     is 

there. 
Yes,   I   can   go   if  you  take  me — Nurse  says  she  don't    care. 
Let's   go   up   to  the    pig-sties  and   sit   on    the   farmyard   rails ! 
Let's   say   things   to   the    bunnies,   and   watch    'em    skitter    their   tails  : 
Let's — oh,   anything,  daddy,  so    long   as  it's    you    and    me, 
And   going  truly  exploring,   and  not  being  in  till  tea  ! 
Here's    your    boots    (I've    brought     'em),     and    here's    your    cap    and 

stick, 
And    here's    your     pipe     and    tobacco.       Oh,    come    along    out    of    it 

— quick. 


61 


THE    ELEPHANT'S    CHILD 


N  the  High  and  Far-Off 
Times  the  Elephant,  O 
Best  Beloved,  had  no 
trunk.  He  had  only  a 
blackish,  bulgy  nose,  as 
big  as  a  boot,  that  he 
could  wriggle  about 
from  side  to  side ;  but 
he  couldn't  pick  up 
things  with  it.  But 
there  was  one  Elephant — a  new  Elephant — an 
Elephant's  Child — who  was  full  of  'satiable 
curtiosity,  and  that  means  he  asked  ever  so 
many  questions.  And  he  lived  in  Africa,  and 
he  filled  all  Africa  with  his  'satiable  curtiosities. 
He  asked  his  tall  aunt,  the  Ostrich,  why  her 
tail-feathers  grew  just  so,  and  his  tall  aunt  the 
Ostrich   spanked  him  with  her  hard,  hard  claw. 

63 


64  Just  So  Stories 

He  asked  his  tall  uncle,  the  Giraffe,  what  made 
his  skin  spotty,  and  his  tall  uncle,  the  Giraffe, 
spanked  him  with  his  hard,  hard  hoof.  And 
still  he  was  full  of  'satiable  curtiosity !  He 
asked  his  broad  aunt,  the  Hippopotamus,  why 
her  eyes  were  red,  and  his  broad  aunt,  the  Hip- 
popotamus, spanked  him  with  her  broad,  broad 
hoof ;  and  he  asked  his  hairy  uncle,  the  Baboon, 
why  melons  tasted  just  so,  and  his  hairy  uncle, 
the  Baboon,  spanked  him  with  his  hairy,  hairy 
paw.  And  still  he  was  full  of  'satiable  curtiosity ! 
He  asked  questions  about  everything  that  he 
saw,  or  heard,  or  felt,  or  smelt,  or  touched,  and 
all  his  uncles  and  his  aunts  spanked  him.  And 
still  he  was  full  of  'satiable  curtiosity ! 

One  fine  morning  in  the  middle  of  the 
Precession  of  the  Equinoxes  this  'satiable 
Elephant's  Child  asked  a  new  fine  question 
that  he  had  never  asked  before.  He  asked, 
'  What  does  the  Crocodile  have  for  dinner  ?  ' 
Then  everybody  said,  '  Hush !  '  in  a  loud  and 
dretful  tone,  and  they  spanked  him  immediately 
and  directly,  without  stopping,  for  a  long  time. 

By  and  by,  when  that  was  finished,  he  came 
upon  Kolokolo  Bird  sitting  in  the  middle  of  a 
wait-a-bit    thorn-bush,    and    he   said,  '  My   father 


The  Elephant's  Child         65 

has  spanked  me,  and  my  mother  has  spanked 
me  ;  all  my  aunts  and  uncles  have  spanked  me 
for  my  'satiable  curtiosity ;  and  still  I  want  to 
know  what  the  Crocodile  has  for  dinner  ! ' 

Then  Kolokolo  Bird  said,  with  a  mournful 
cry,  '  Go  to  the  banks  of  the  great  grey-green, 
greasy  Limpopo  River,  all  set  about  with  fever- 
trees,  and  find  out.' 

That  very  next  morning,  when  there  was 
nothing  left  of  the  Equinoxes,  because  the  Pre- 
cession had  preceded  according  to  precedent,  this 
'satiable  Elephant's  Child  took  a  hundred  pounds 
of  bananas  (the  little  short  red  kind),  and  a 
hundred  pounds  of  sugar-cane  (the  long  purple 
kind),  and  seventeen  melons  (the  greeny-crackly 
kind),  and  said  to  all  his  dear  families,  '  Good- 
bye. I  am  going  to  the  great  grey-green,  greasy 
Limpopo  River,  all  set  about  with  fever-trees,  to 
find  out  what  the  Crocodile  has  for  dinner.' 
And  they  all  spanked  him  once  more  for  luck, 
though  he  asked  them  most  politely  to  stop. 

Then  he  went  away,  a  little  warm,  but  not 
at  all  astonished,  eating  melons,  and  throwing 
the  rind  about,  because  he  could  not  pick  it  up. 

He  went  from  Graham's  Town  to  Kimberley, 
and  from  Kimberley  to    Khama's  Country,   and 


66  Just  So  Stories 

from  Khama's  Country  he  went  east  by  north, 
eating  melons  all  the  time,  till  at  last  he  came 
to  the  banks  of  the  great  grey-green,  greasy 
Limpopo  River,  all  set  about  with  fever-trees, 
precisely  as  Kolokolo  Bird  had  said. 

Now  you  must  know  and  understand,  O 
Best  Beloved,  that  till  that  very  week,  and  day, 
and  hour,  and  minute,  this  'satiable  Elephant's 
Child  had  never  seen  a  Crocodile,  and  did  not 
know  what  one  was  like.  It  was  all  his  'satiable 
curtiosity. 

The  first  thing  that  he  found  was  a  Bi- 
Coloured- Python -Rock -Snake  curled  round  a 
rock. 

'  'Scuse  me,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child  most 
politely,  '  but  have  you  seen  such  a  thing  as  a 
Crocodile  in  these  promiscuous  parts  ? ' 

1  Have  I  seen  a  Crocodile  ? '  said  the  Bi- 
Coloured  -  Python  -  Rock  -  Snake,  in  a  voice  of 
dretful  scorn.     '  What  will  you  ask  me  next  ? ' 

'  'Scuse  me,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child,  '  but 
could  you  kindly  tell  me  what  he  has  for  dinner?' 

Then  the  Bi  -  Coloured  -  Python  -  Rock  - 
Snake  uncoiled  himself  very  quickly  from  the 
rock,  and  spanked  the  Elephant's  Child  with  his 
scalesome,  flailsome  tail. 


The  Elephant's  Child        67 

'That  is  odd,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child, 
'  because  my  father  and  my  mother,  and  my 
uncle  and  my  aunt,  not  to  mention  my  other 
aunt,  the  Hippopotamus,  and  my  other  uncle,  the 
Baboon,  have  all  spanked  me  for  my  'satiable 
curtiosity — and  I  suppose  this  is  the  same  thing.' 

So  he  said  good-bye  very  politely  to  the  Bi- 
Coloured -Python- Rock  -  Snake,  and  helped  to 
coil  him  up  on  the  rock  again,  and  went  on,  a 
little  warm,  but  not  at  all  astonished,  eating 
melons,  and  throwing  the  rind  about,  because 
he  could  not  pick  it  up,  till  he  trod  on  what 
he  thought  was  a  log  of  wood  at  the  very  edge 
of  the  great  grey-green,  greasy  Limpopo  River, 
all  set  about  with  fever-trees. 

But  it  was  really  the  Crocodile,  O  Best  Beloved, 
and  the  Crocodile  winked  one  eye — like  this ! 

'  'Scuse  me,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child  most 
politely,  '  but  do  you  happen  to  have  seen  a 
Crocodile  in  these  promiscuous  parts  ? ' 

Then  the  Crocodile  winked  the  other  eye, 
and  lifted  half  his  tail  out  of  the  mud ;  and  the 
Elephant's  Child  stepped  back  most  politely, 
because  he  did  not  wish  to  be  spanked  again. 

'  Come  hither,  Little  One,'  said  the  Croco- 
dile.    '  Why  do  you  ask  such  things  ?  ' 


68  Just  So  Stories 

'  'Scuse  me,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child  most 
politely,  '  but  my  father  has  spanked  me,  my 
mother  has  spanked  me,  not  to  mention  my  tall 
aunt,  the  Ostrich,  and  my  tall  uncle,  the 
Giraffe,  who  can  kick  ever  so  hard,  as  well  as 
my  broad  aunt,  the  Hippopotamus,  and  my 
hairy  uncle,  the  Baboon,  and  including  the 
Bi -  Coloured  -  Python  -  Rock-  Snake,  with  the 
scalesome,  flailsome  tail,  just  up  the  bank,  who 
spanks  harder  than  any  of  them  ;  and  so,  if  it's 
quite  all  the  same  to  you,  I  don't  want  to  be 
spanked  any  more.' 

'  Come  hither,  Little  One,'  said  the  Croco- 
dile, '  for  I  am  the  Crocodile,'  and  he  wept 
crocodile-tears  to  show  it  was  quite  true. 

Then  the  Elephant's  Child  grew  all  breath- 
less, and  panted,  and  kneeled  down  on  the  bank 
and  said,  '  You  are  the  very  person  I  have 
been  looking  for  all  these  long  days.  Will  you 
please  tell  me  what  you  have  for  dinner  ? ' 

'  Come  hither,  Little  One,'  said  the  Croco- 
dile, 'and  I'll  whisper.' 

Then  the  Elephant's  Child  put  his  head 
down  close  to  the  Crocodile's  musky,  tusky 
mouth,  and  the  Crocodile  caught  him  by  his 
little    nose,    which    up    to    that  very    week,    day, 


The  Elephant's  Child         69 

hour,  and  minute,  had  been  no  bigger  than  a 
boot,  though  much  more  useful. 

'  I  think,  said  the  Crocodile — and  he  said  it 
between  his  teeth,  like  this — '  I  think  to-day  I 
will  begin  with  Elephant's  Child ! ' 

At  this,  O  Best  Beloved,  the  Elephant's  Child 
was  much  annoyed,  and  he  said,  speaking  through 
his  nose,  like  this, '  Led  go  !     You  are  hurtig  be ! ' 

Then  the  Bi- Coloured- Python -Rock -Snake 
scuffled  down  from  the  bank  and  said,  '  My 
young  friend,  if  you  do  not  now,  immediately 
and  instantly,  pull  as  hard  as  ever  you  can,  it  is 
my  opinion  that  your  acquaintance  in  the  large- 
pattern  leather  ulster'  (and  by  this  he  meant  the 
Crocodile)  '  will  jerk  you  into  yonder  limpid 
stream  before  you  can  say  'Jack  Robinson.' 

This  is  the  way  Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock- 
Snakes  always  talk. 

Then  the  Elephant's  Child  sat  back  on  his 
little  haunches,  and  pulled,  and  pulled,  and 
pulled,  and  his  nose  began  to  stretch.  And  the 
Crocodile  floundered  into  the  water,  making  it 
all  creamy  with  great  sweeps  of  his  tail,  and  he 
pulled,  and  pulled,  and  pulled. 

And  the  Elephant's  Child's  nose  kept  on 
stretching  ;    and  the  Elephant's    Child  spread  all 


70  Just  So  Stories 

his  little  four  legs  and  pulled,  and  pulled,  and 
pulled,  and  his  nose  kept  on  stretching ;  and 
the  Crocodile  threshed  his  tail  like  an  oar,  and 
he  pulled,  and  pulled,  and  pulled,  and  at  each 
pull  the  Elephant's  Child's  nose  grew  longer 
and  longer — and  it  hurt  him  hijjus ! 

Then  the  Elephant's  Child  felt  his  legs  slip- 
ping, and  he  said  through  his  nose,  which  was  now 
nearly  five  feet  long,  '  This  is  too  butch  for  be  ! ' 

Then  the  Bi- Coloured -Python -Rock -Snake 
came  down  from  the  bank,  and  knotted  himself 
in  a  double  -  clove -hitch  round  the  Elephant's 
Child's  hind  legs,  and  said,  '  Rash  and  inexperi- 
enced traveller,  we  will  now  seriously  devote 
ourselves  to  a  little  high  tension,  because  if  we 
do  not,  it  is  my  impression  that  yonder  self- 
propelling  man-of-war  with  the  armour-plated 
upper  deck  '  (and  by  this,  O  Best  Beloved,  he 
meant  the  Crocodile),  '  will  permanently  vitiate 
your  future  career.' 

That  is  the  way  all  Bi- Coloured- Python  - 
Rock -Snakes  always  talk. 

So  he  pulled,  and  the  Elephant's  Child 
pulled,  and  the  Crocodile  pulled  ;  but  the 
Elephant's  Child  and  the  Bi-Coloured-Python- 
Rock-Snake    pulled     hardest  ;     and     at    last    the 


The  Elephant's  Child         71 

Crocodile  let  go  of  the  Elephant's  Child's  nose 
with  a  plop  that  you  could  hear  all  up  and 
down  the  Limpopo. 

Then  the  Elephant's  Child  sat  down  most 
hard  and  sudden  ;  but  first  he  was  careful  to  say 
'  Thank  you  '  to  the  Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock- 
Snake ;  and  next  he  was  kind  to  his  poor  pulled 
nose,  and  wrapped  it  all  up  in  cool  banana 
leaves,  and  hung  it  in  the  great  grey-green, 
greasy  Limpopo  to  cool. 

'  What  are  you  doing  that  for  ? '  said  the  Bi- 
Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 

' 'Scuse  me,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child,  'but 
my  nose  is  badly  out  of  shape,  and  I  am  waiting 
for  it  to  shrink.' 

'  Then  you  will  have  to  wait  a  long  time,' 
said  the  Bi  -  Coloured  -  Python  -  Rock  -  Snake. 
'  Some  people  do  not  know  what  is  good  for 
them.' 

The  Elephant's  Child  sat  there  for  three 
days  waiting  for  his  nose  to  shrink.  But  it 
never  grew  any  shorter,  and,  besides,  it  made 
him  squint.  For,  O  Best  Beloved,  you  will 
see  and  understand  that  the  Crocodile  had 
pulled  it  out  into  a  really  truly  trunk  same  as 
all  Elephants  have  to-day. 


THIS  is  the  Elephant's  Child  having  his  nose  pulled  by  the  Crocodile. 
He  is  much  surprised  and  astonished  and  hurt,  and  he  is  talking  through 
his  nose  and  saying,  '  Led  go  !  You  are  hurtig  be  !  '  He  is  pulling  very 
hard,  and  so  is  the  Crocodile  ;  but  the  Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake  is 
hurrying  through  the  water  to  help  the  Elephant's  Child.  All  that  black 
stuff  is  the  banks  of  the  great  grey-green,  greasy  Limpopo  River  (but  I  am 
not  allowed  to  paint  these  pictures),  and  the  bottly-tree  with  the  twisty 
roots    and  the   eight    leaves    is    one   of  the    fever   trees   that  grow   there. 

Underneath  the  truly  picture  are  shadows  of  African  animals  walking 
into  an  African  ark.  There  are  two  lions,  two  ostriches,  two  oxen,  two 
camels,  two  sheep,  and  two  other  things  that  look  like  rats,  but  I  think 
they  are  rock-rabbits.  They  don't  mean  anything.  I  put  them  in 
because  I  thought  they  looked  pretty.  They  would  look  very  fine  if  I 
were   allowed    to    paint    them. 


72 


73 


The  Elephant's  Child        75 

At  the  end  of  the  third  day  a  fly  came  and 
stung  him  on  the  shoulder,  and  before  he  knew 
what  he  was  doing  he  lifted  up  his  trunk  and 
hit  that  fly  dead  with  the  end  of  it. 

'  'Vantage  number  one  1  '  said  the  Bi- 
Coloured  -  Python  -  Rock  -  Snake.  '  You  couldn't 
have  done  that  with  a  mere-smear  nose.  Try 
and  eat  a  little  now.' 

Before  he  thought  what  he  was  doing  the 
Elephant's  Child  put  out  his  trunk  and  plucked 
a  large  bundle  of  grass,  dusted  it  clean  against 
his  fore-legs,  and  stuffed  it  into  his  own  mouth. 

'  'Vantage  number  two !  '  said  the  Bi  - 
Coloured -Python -Rock -Snake.  'You  couldn't 
have  done  that  with  a  mear-smear  nose.  Don't 
you  think  the  sun  is  very  hot  here  ?  ' 

'  It  is,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child,  and  before 
he  thought  what  he  was  doing  he  schlooped  up 
a  schloop  of  mud  from  the  banks  of  the  great 
grey-green,  greasy  Limpopo,  and  slapped  it  on 
his  head,  where  it  made  a  cool  schloopy-sloshy 
mud-cap  all  trickly  behind  his  ears. 

1  'Vantage  number  three  !  '  said  the  Bi  - 
Coloured- Python- Rock- Snake.  'You  couldn't 
have  done  that  with  a  mere-smear  nose.  Now 
how  do  you  feel  about  being  spanked  again  ? ' 


76 


Just  So  Stories 


4  'Scuse  me,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child,  '  but 
I  should  not  like  it  at  all.' 

'  How  would  you  like  to  spank  somebody  ? ' 
said  the  Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 

'  I  should  like  it  very  much  indeed,'  said  the 
Elephant's  Child. 

'Well,'  said  the  Bi- Coloured -Python -Rock  - 
Snake,  '  you  will  find  that  new  nose  of  yours 
very  useful  to  spank  people  with.' 

'  Thank  you,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child,  '  I'll 
remember  that;  and  now  I  think  I'll  go  home 
to  all  my  dear  families  and  try.' 

So  the  Elephant's  Child  went  home  across 
Africa  frisking  and  whisking  his  trunk.  When 
he  wanted  fruit  to  eat  he  pulled  fruit  down 
from  a  tree,  instead  of  waiting  for  it  to  fall  as 
he  used  to  do.  When  he  wanted  grass  he 
plucked  grass  up  from  the  ground,  instead  of 
going  on  his  knees  as  he  used  to  do.  When 
the  flies  bit  him  he  broke  off  the  branch 
of  a  tree  and  used  it  as  a  fly-whisk ;  and 
he  made  himself  a  new,  cool,  slushy-squshy 
mud-cap  whenever  the  sun  was  hot.  When 
he  felt  lonely  walking  through  Africa  he 
sang  to  himself  down  his  trunk,  and  the 
noise     was     louder    than    several     brass     bands. 


The  Elephant's  Child        77 

He  went  especially  out  of  his  way  to  find  a 
broad  Hippopotamus  (she  was  no  relation  of 
his),  and  he  spanked  her  very  hard,  to  make 
sure  that  the  Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake 
had  spoken  the  truth  about  his  new  trunk. 
The  rest  of  the  time  he  picked  up  the  melon 
rinds  that  he  had  dropped  on  his  way  to  the 
Limpopo — for  he  was  a  Tidy  Pachyderm. 

One  dark  evening  he  came  back  to  all  his 
dear  families,  and  he  coiled  up  his  trunk  and 
said,  '  How  do  you  do  ? '  They  were  very  glad 
to  see  him,  and  immediately  said,  '  Come  here 
and  be  spanked  for  your  'satiable  curtiosity.' 

'Pooh,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child.  'I  don't 
think  you  peoples  know  anything  about  spank- 
ing;   but  /  do,  and  I'll  show  you.' 

Then  he  uncurled  his  trunk  and  knocked 
two  of  his  dear  brothers  head  over  heels. 

'  O  Bananas  ! '  said  they,  '  where  did  you 
learn  that  trick,  and  what  have  you  done  to 
your  nose  ? ' 

'  I  got  a  new  one  from  the  Crocodile  on  the 
banks  of  the  great  grey-green,  greasy  Limpopo 
River,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child.  '  I  asked 
him  what  he  had  for  dinner,  and  he  gave  me 
this  to  keep.' 


This  is  just  a  picture  of  the  Elephant's  Child  going  to  pull  bananas 
off  a  banana-tree  after  he  had  got  his  fine  new  long  trunk.  I  don't  think 
it  is  a  very  nice  picture  ;  but  I  couldn't  make  it  any  better,  because 
elephants  and  bananas  are  hard  to  draw.  The  streaky  things  behind  the 
Elephant's  Child  mean  squoggy  marshy  country  somewhere  in  Africa. 
The  Elephant's  Child  made  most  of  his  mud-cakes  out  of  the  mud  that 
he  found  there.  I  think  it  would  look  better  if  you  painted  the  banana- 
tree    green    and   the    Elephant's    Child    red. 


78 


The  Elephant's  Child         81 

'  It  looks  very  ugly,'  said  his  hairy  uncle, 
the  Baboon. 

'  It  does,'  said  the  Elephant's  Child.  '  But 
it's  very  useful,'  and  he  picked  up  his  hairy 
uncle,  the  Baboon,  by  one  hairy  leg,  and  hove 
him  into  a  hornet's  nest. 

Then  that  bad  Elephant's  Child  spanked  all 
his  dear  families  for  a  long  time,  till  they  were 
very  warm  and  greatly  astonished.  He  pulled 
out  his  tall  Ostrich  aunt's  tail-feathers  ;  and  he 
caught  his  tall  uncle,  the  Giraffe,  by  the  hind- 
leg,  and  dragged  him  through  a  thorn-bush ; 
and  he  shouted  at  his  broad  aunt,  the  Hippo- 
potamus, and  blew  bubbles  into  her  ear  when 
she  was  sleeping  in  the  water  after  meals ;  but 
he  never  let  any  one  touch  Kolokolo   Bird. 

At  last  things  grew  so  exciting  that  his  dear 
families  went  off  one  by  one  in  a  hurry  to  the 
banks  of  the  great  grey-green,  greasy  Limpopo 
River,  all  set  about  with  fever-trees,  to  borrow 
new  noses  from  the  Crocodile.  When  they  came 
back  nobody  spanked  anybody  any  more ;  and 
ever  since  that  day,  O  Best  Beloved,  all  the 
Elephants  you  will  ever  see,  besides  all  those 
that  you  won't,  have  trunks  precisely  like  the 
trunk  of  the  'satiable  Elephant's  Child. 


I  KEEP  six  honest  serving-men  ; 

(They  taught  me  all  I  knew) 
Their  names  are  What  and  Where  and  When 

And  How  and  Where  and  Who. 
I  send  them  over  land  and  sea, 

I  send  them  east  and  west ; 
But  after  they  have  worked  for  me, 

/  give  them  all  a  rest. 

/  let  them  rest  from  nine  till  five, 

For  I  am  busy  then, 
As  well  as  breakfast,  lunch,  and  tea, 

For  they  are  hungry  men  : 
But  different  folk  have  different  views  ; 

I  know  a  person  small — 
She  keeps  ten  million  serving-men, 

Who  get  no  rest  at  all ! 
She  sends  'em  abroad  on  her  own  affairs, 

From  the  second  she  opens  her  eyes — 
One  million  Hows,  two  million  Wheres, 

And  seven  million  Whys  ! 


8.1 


THE    SING-SONG   OF   OLD    MAN 
KANGAROO 


O  T  always  was  the  Kan- 
garoo as  now  we  do 
behold  him,  but  a 
Different  Animal  with 
four  short  legs.  H" 
was  grey  and  he  was 
woolly,  and  his  pride 
was  inordinate  :  he 
danced  on  an  outcrop 
in  the  middle  of  Aus- 
tralia, and  he  went  to  the  Little  God  Nqa. 

He  went  to  Nqa  at  six  before  breakfast, 
saying,  '  Make  me  different  from  all  other 
animals  by  five  this  afternoon.' 

Up  jumped  Nqa  from  his  seat  on  the  sand- 
flat  and  shouted,  '  Go  away  ! ' 

He  was   grey   and   he   was   woolly,    and    his 

85 


86  Just  So  Stories 

pride  was  inordinate :  he  danced  on  a  rock- 
ledge  in  the  middle  of  Australia,  and  he  went 
to  the  Middle  God  Nquing. 

He  went  to  Nquing  at  eight  after  breakfast, 
saying,  '  Make  me  different  from  all  other 
animals ;  make  me,  also,  wonderfully  popular 
by  five  this  afternoon.' 

Up  jumped  Nquing  from  his  burrow  in  the 
spinifex  and  shouted,  'Go  away!' 

He  was  grey  and  he  was  woolly,  and  his 
pride  was  inordinate:  he  danced  on  a  sandbank 
in  the  middle  of  Australia,  and  he  went  to  the 
Big  God  Nqong. 

He  went  to  Nqong  at  ten  before  dinner- 
time, saying,  '  Make  me  different  from  all  other 
animals ;  make  me  popular  and  wonderfully  run 
after  by  five  this  afternoon.' 

Up  jumped  Nqong  from  his  bath  in  the 
salt-pan  and  shouted,  '  Yes,  I  will ! ' 

Nqong  called  Dingo — Yellow-Dog  Dingo — 
always  hungry,  dusty  in  the  sunshine,  and 
showed  him  Kangaroo.  Nqong  said,  '  Dingo  ! 
Wake  up,  Dingo !  Do  you  see  that  gentleman 
dancing  on  an  ashpit  ?  He  wants  to  be  popular 
and  very  truly  run  after.  Dingo,  make  him 
so!' 


Old  Man  Kangaroo  87 

Up  jumped  Dingo — Yellow-Dog  Dingo — 
and  said,  '  What,  that  cat-rabbit  ?  ' 

Off  ran  Dingo  —  Yellow  -  Dog  Dingo  — 
always  hungry,  grinning  like  a  coal-scuttle, — 
ran  after  Kangaroo. 

Off  went  the  proud  Kangaroo  on  his  four 
little  legs  like  a  bunny. 

This,  O  Beloved  of  mine,  ends  the  first 
part  of  the  tale  ! 

He  ran  through  the  desert ;  he  ran  through 
the  mountains ;  he  ran  through  the  salt-pans ; 
he  ran  through  the  reed-beds  ;  he  ran  through 
the  blue  gums  ;  he  ran  through  the  spinifex ; 
he  ran  till  his  front  legs  ached. 

He  had  to  ! 

Still  ran  Dingo — Yellow  -  Dog  Dingo  — 
always  hungry,  grinning  like  a  rat-trap,  never 
getting  nearer,  never  getting  farther, — ran  after 
Kangaroo. 

He  had  to! 

Still  ran  Kangaroo  —  Old  Man  Kangaroo. 
He  ran  through  the  ti-trees  ;  he  ran  through 
the  mulga ;  he  ran  through  the  long  grass ;  he 
ran  through  the  short  grass ;  he  ran  through 
the  Tropics  of  Capricorn  and  Cancer ;  he  ran 
till  his  hind  legs  ached. 


This  is  a  picture  of  Old  Man  Kangaroo  when  he  was  the  Different 
Animal  with  four  short  legs.  I  have  drawn  him  grey  and  woolly,  and 
you  can  see  that  he  is  very  proud  because  he  has  a  wreath  of  flowers  in  his 
hair.  He  is  dancing  on  an  outcrop  (that  means  a  ledge  of  rock)  in  the 
middle  of  Australia  at  six  o'clock  before  breakfast.  You  can  see  that  it  is 
six  o'clock,  because  the  sun  is  just  getting  up.  The  thing  with  the  ears 
and  the  open  mouth  is  Little  God  Nqa.  Nqa  is  very  much  surprised, 
because  he  has  never  seen  a  Kangaroo  dance  like  that  before.  Little  God 
Nqa  is  just  saying,  '  Go  away,'  but  the  Kangaroo  is  so  busy  dancing 
that    he    has    not   heard    him    yet. 

The     Kangaroo     hasn't     any    real     name    except    Boomer.       He    lost   it 
because  he  was   so   proud. 


88 


89 


Old  Man  Kangaroo  91 

He  had  to  ! 

Still  ran  Dingo  —  Yellow  -  Dog  Dingo- 
hungrier  and  hungrier,  grinning  like  a  horse- 
collar,  never  getting  nearer,  never  getting 
farther  ;    and  they  came  to  the  Wollgong  River. 

Now,  there  wasn't  any  bridge,  and  there 
wasn't  any  ferry-boat,  and  Kangaroo  didn't 
know  how  to  get  over ;  so  he  stood  on  his  legs 
and  hopped. 

He  had  to  ! 

He  hopped  through  the  Flinders  ;  he  hopped 
through  the  Cinders;  he  hopped  through  the 
deserts  in  the  middle  of  Australia.  He  hopped 
like  a  Kangaroo. 

First  he  hopped  one  yard  ;  then  he  hopped 
three  yards ;  then  he  hopped  five  yards ;  his 
legs  growing  stronger ;  his  legs  growing  longer. 
He  hadn't  any  time  for  rest  or  refreshment,  and 
he  wanted  them  very  much. 

Still  ran  Dingo — Yellow  -  Dog  Dingo — very 
much  bewildered,  very  much  hungry,  and 
wondering  what  in  the  world  or  out  of  it  made 
Old  Man  Kangaroo  hop. 

For  he  hopped  like  a  cricket ;  like  a  pea  in 
a  saucepan;  or  a  new  rubber  ball  on  a  nursery 
floor. 


THIS  is  the  picture  of  Old  Man  Kangaroo  at  five  in  the  afternoon,  when 
he  had  got  his  beautiful  hind  legs  just  as  Big  God  Nqong  had  promised. 
You  can  see  that  it  is  five  o'clock,  because  Big  God  Nqong's  pet  tame 
clock  says  so.  That  is  Nqong,  in  his  bath,  sticking  his  feet  out.  Old 
'Man  Kangaroo  is  being  rude  to  Yellow  -  Dog  Dingo.  Yellow  -  Dog 
Dingo  has  been  trying  to  catch  Kangaroo  all  across  Australia.  You  can 
see  the  marks  of  Kangaroo's  big  new  feet  running  ever  so  far  back  over 
the  bare  hills.  Yellow-Dog  Dingo  is  drawn  black,  because  I  am  not 
allowed  to  paint  these  pictures  with  real  colours  out  of  the  paint-box  ; 
and  besides,  Yellow  -  Dog  Dingo  got  dreadfully  black  and  dusty  after 
running  through  the   Flinders  and  the  Cinders. 

I  don't  know  the  names  of  the  flowers  growing  round  Nqong's  bath. 
The  two  little  squatty  things  out  in  the  desert  are  the  other  two  gods 
that  Old  Man  Kangaroo  spoke  to  early  in  the  morning.  That  thing  with 
the  letters  on  it  is  Old  Man  Kangaroo's  pouch.  He  had  to  have  a  pouch 
just  as  he  had  to  have  legs. 


92 


93 


Old  Man  Kangaroo  95 

He  had  to ! 

He  tucked  up  his  front  legs  ;  he  hopped 
on  his  hind  legs ;  he  stuck  out  his  tail  for  a 
balance-weight  behind  him ;  and  he  hopped 
through  the    Darling  Downs. 

He   had  to! 

Still  ran  Dingo  —  Tired -Dog  Dingo  — 
hungrier  and  hungrier,  very  much  bewildered, 
and  wondering  when  in  the  world  or  out  of  it 
would   Old  Man   Kangaroo  stop. 

Then  came  Nqong  from  his  bath  in  the  salt- 
pans, and    said,  'It's  five  o'clock.' 

Down  sat  Dingo — Poor  Dog  Dingo — always 
hungry,  dusky  in  the  sunshine  ;  hung  out  his 
tongue  and  howled. 

Down  sat  Kangaroo — Old  Man  Kangaroo — 
stuck  out  his  tail  like  a  milking-stool  be- 
hind him,  and  said,  '  Thank  goodness  that's 
finished  !  ' 

Then  said  Nqong,  who  is  always  a  gentle- 
man, 'Why  aren't  you  grateful  to  Yellow-Dog 
Dingo  ?  Why  don't  you  thank  him  for  all  he 
has  done  for  you  ? ' 

Then  said  Kangaroo — Tired  Old  Kangaroo 
— '  He's  chased  me  out  of  the  homes  of  my 
childhood  ;    he's   chased  me  out   of   my   regular 


96 


Just  So  Stories 


meal-times  ;  he's  altered  my  shape  so  I'll  never 
get  it  back  ;  and  he's  played  Old  Scratch  with 
my  legs.' 

Then  said  Nqong,  '  Perhaps  I'm  mistaken, 
but  didn't  you  ask  me  to  make  you  different 
from  all  other  animals,  as  well  as  to  make  you 
very  truly  sought  after?  And  now  it  is  five 
o'clock.' 

'Yes,'  said  Kangaroo.  'I  wish  that  I 
hadn't.  I  thought  you  would  do  it  by  charms 
and  incantations,  but  this  is  a  practical 
joke.' 

'  Joke !  '  said  Nqong  from  his  bath  in  the 
blue  gums.  'Say  that  again  and  I'll  whistle  up 
Dingo  and  run  your  hind  legs  off.' 

'No,' said  the  Kangaroo.  'I  must  apologise. 
Legs  are  legs,  and  you  needn't  alter  'em  so  far 
as  I  am  concerned.  I  only  meant  to  explain 
to  Your  Lordliness  that  I've  had  nothing 
to  eat  since  morning,  and  I'm  very  empty 
indeed.' 

'Yes,'  said  Dingo  —  Yellow -Dog  Dingo, — 
'  I  am  just  in  the  same  situation.  I've  made 
him  different  from  all  other  animals  ;  but  what 
may    I    have    for  my   tea?' 

Then  said  Nqong  from  his  bath  in  the  salt- 


Old  Man  Kangaroo  97 

pan,   '  Come   and    ask   me    about    it   to-morrow> 
because  I'm  going  to  wash.' 

So  they  were  left  in  the  middle  of  Australia, 
Old  Man  Kangaroo  and  Yellow-Dog  Dingo, 
and  each  said,  '  That's  your  fault.' 


This  is  the  mouth-filling  song 

Of  the  race  that  was  run  by  a  Boomer, 

Run  in  a  single  burst — only  event  of  its  kind — 

Started  by  big  God  Nqong  from  Warrigaborrigarooma, 

Old  Man  Kangaroo  first :  Yellow-Dog  Dingo  behind. 

Kangaroo  bounded  away, 

His  back-legs  working  like  pistons — 

Bounded  from  morning  till  dark, 

Twenty-five  feet  to  a  bound. 

Yellow-Dog  Dingo  lay 

Like  a  yellow  cloud  in  the  distance — 

Much  too  busy  to  bark. 

My  !   but  they  covered  the  ground  ! 

Nobody  knows  where  they  went, 

Or  followed  the  track  that  they  flew  in, 

For  that  Continent 

Hadn't  been  given  a  name. 

They  ran  thirty  degrees, 

From  Torres  Straits  to  the  Leeuwin 

(Look  at  the  Atlas,  please), 

And  they  ran  back  as  they  came. 

S'posing  you  could  trot 

From  Adelaide  to  the  Pacific, 

For  an  afternoon's  run — 

Half  what  these  gentlemen  did — 

You  would  feel  rather  hot, 

But  your  legs  would  develop  terrific — 

Yes,  my  importunate  son, 

You'd  be  a  Marvellous  Kid  ! 


99 


THE   BEGINNING  OF  THE 
ARMADILLOS 


HIS,  O  Best  Beloved,  is 
another  story  of  the 
High  and  Far  -  Off 
Times.  In  the  very 
middle  of  those  times 
was  a  Stickly  -  Prickly 
Hedgehog,  and  he  lived 
on  the  banks  of  the 
turbid  Amazon,  eating 
shelly  snails  and  things. 
And  he  had  a  friend,  a  Slow-Solid  Tortoise, 
who  lived  on  the  banks  of  the  turbid  Amazon, 
eating  green  lettuces  and  things.  And  so  that 
was  all  right,  Best  Beloved.     Do  you  see  ? 

But  also,  and  at  the  same  time,  in  those 
High  and  Far-Off  Times,  there  was  a  Painted 
Jaguar,  and  he  lived  on  the  banks  of  the  turbid 


IOI 


102  Just  So  Stories 

Amazon  too ;  and  he  ate  everything  that  he 
could  catch.  When  he  could  not  catch  deer 
or  monkeys  he  would  eat  frogs  and  beetles  ;  and 
when  he  could  not  catch  frogs  and  beetles  he 
went  to  his  Mother  Jaguar,  and  she  told  him 
how  to  eat  hedgehogs  and  tortoises. 

She  said  to  him  ever  so  many  times, 
graciously  waving  her  tail,  '  My  son,  when  you 
find  a  Hedgehog  you  must  drop  him  into  the 
water  and  then  he  will  uncoil,  and  when  you 
catch  a  Tortoise  you  must  scoop  him  out  of  his 
shell  with  your  paw.'  And  so  that  was  all  right, 
Best  Beloved. 

One  beautiful  night  on  the  banks  of  the 
turbid  Amazon,  Painted  Jaguar  found  Stickly- 
Prickly  Hedgehog  and  Slow -Solid  Tortoise 
sitting  under  the  trunk  of  a  fallen  tree.  They 
could  not  run  away,  and  so  Stickly-Prickly 
curled  himself  up  into  a  ball,  because  he  was  a 
Hedgehog,  and  Slow-Solid  Tortoise  drew  in  his 
head  and  feet  into  his  shell  as  far  as  they  would 
go,  because  he  was  a  Tortoise  ;  and  so  that  was 
all   right,    Best   Beloved.      Do  you   see  ? 

'  Now  attend  to  me,'  said  Painted  Jaguar, 
'  because  this  is  very  important.  My  mother 
said  that  when  I  meet  a  Hedgehog  I  am  to   drop 


Beginning  of  the  Armadillos    103 

him    into  the   water    and   then    he    will    uncoil, 
and  when  I  meet  a  Tortoise  I  am  to  scoop  him 
out  of  his  shell   with   my  paw.     Now  which  of 
you  is  Hedgehog  and  which  is  Tortoise  ?  because 
to  save  my  spots,  I  can't  tell.' 

'  Are  you  sure  of  what  your  Mummy  told 
you  ?  '  said  Stickly  -  Prickly  Hedgehog.  '  Are 
you  quite  sure  ?  Perhaps  she  said  that  when 
you  uncoil  a  Tortoise  you  must  shell  him  out 
of  the  water  with  a  scoop,  and  when  you  paw  a 
Hedgehog  you  must  drop  him  on  the  shell.' 

'  Are  you  sure  of  what  your  Mummy  told 
you  ?  '  said  Slow-and-Solid  Tortoise.  '  Are  you 
quite  sure?  Perhaps  she  said  that  when  you 
water  a  Hedgehog  you  must  drop  him  into  your 
paw,  and  when  you  meet  a  Tortoise  you  must 
shell  him  till  he  uncoils.' 

'  I  don't  think  it  was  at  all  like  that,'  said 
Painted  Jaguar,  but  he  felt  a  little  puzzled ; 
'  but,  please,  say  it  again  more  distinctly.' 

'  When  you  scoop  water  with  your  paw  you 
uncoil  it  with  a  Hedgehog,'  said  Stickly-Prickly. 
'  Remember  that,  because  it's  important.' 

'  But, '  said  the  Tortoise,  '  when  you  paw  your 
meat  you  drop  it  into  a  Tortoise  with  a  scoop. 
Why  can't  you  understand  ?  ' 


This  is  an  inciting  map  of  the  Turbid  Amazon  done  in  Red  and  Black. 
It  hasn't  anything  to  do  with  the  story  except  that  there  are  two  Arma- 
dillos in  it — up  by  the  top.  The  inciting  part  are  the  adventures  that 
happened  to  the  men  who  went  along  the  road  marked  in  red.  I  meant  to 
draw  Armadillos  when  I  began  the  map,  and  I  meant  to  draw  manatees 
and  spider-tailed  monkeys  and  big  snakes  and  lots  of  Jaguars,  but  it  was 
more  inciting  to  do  the  map  and  the  venturesome  adventures  in  red.  You 
begin  at  the  bottom  left-hand  corner  and  follow  the  little  arrows  all 
about,  and  then  you  come  quite  round  again  to  where  the  adventuresome 
people  went  home  in  a  ship  called  the  'l^oyal  Tiger.  This  is  a  most 
adventuresome  picture,  and  all  the  adventures  are  told  about  in  writing, 
so  you  can  be  quite  sure  which  is  an  adventure  and  which  is  a  tree  or 
a  boat. 


104 


105 


Beginning  of  the  Armadillos   107 

'  You  are  making  my  spots  ache,'  said  Painted 
Jaguar  ;  '  and  besides,  I  didn't  want  your  advice 
at  all.  I  only  wanted  to  know  which  of  you  is 
Hedgehog  and  which  is  Tortoise.' 

'I  shan't  tell  you,'  said  Stickly  -  Prickly. 
'  but  you  can  scoop  me  out  of  my  shell  if  you 
like.' 

'  Aha  !  '  said  Painted  Jaguar.  '  Now  I  know 
you're  Tortoise.  You  thought  I  wouldn't  ! 
Now  I  will.'  Painted  Jaguar  darted  out  his 
paddy-paw  just  as  Stickly-Prickly  curled  himself 
up,  and  of  course  Jaguar's  paddy-paw  was  just 
filled  with  prickles.  Worse  than  that,  he 
knocked  Stickly-Prickly  away  and  away  into  the 
woods  and  the  bushes,  where  it  was  too  dark  to 
find  him.  Then  he  put  his  paddy-paw  into  his 
mouth,  and  of  course  the  prickles  hurt  him 
worse  than  ever.  As  soon  as  he  could  speak  he 
said,  '  Now  I  know  he  isn't  Tortoise  at  all. 
But ' — and  then  he  scratched  his  head  with 
his  un-prickly  paw — '  how  do  I  know  that  this 
other  is  Tortoise  ?  ' 

'But  I  am  Tortoise,'  said  Slow -and -Solid. 
'  Your  mother  was  quite  right.  She  said  that 
you  were  to  scoop  me  out  of  my  shell  with  your 
paw.     Begin.' 


108  Just  So  Stories 

'  You  didn't  say  she  said  that  a  minute  ago,' 
said  Painted  Jaguar,  sucking  the  prickles  out  of 
his  paddy-paw.  '  You  said  she  said  something 
quite  different.' 

'  Well,  suppose  you  say  that  I  said  that  she 
said  something  quite  different,  I  don't  see  that  it 
makes  any  difference ;  because  if  she  said  what 
you  said  I  said  she  said,  it's  just  the  same  as  if  I 
said  what  she  said  she  said.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  you  think  she  said  that  you  were  to  uncoil  me 
with  a  scoop,  instead  of  pawing  me  into  drops 
with  a  shell,  I  can't  help  that,  can  I  ? ' 

'  But  you  said  you  wanted  to  be  scooped  out 
of  your  shell  with  my  paw,'  said  Painted  Jaguar. 

'  If  you'll  think  again  you'll  find  that  I  didn't 
say  anything  of  the  kind.  I  said  that  your 
mother  said  that  you  were  to  scoop  me  out  of 
my  shell,'  said  Slow-and-Solid. 

'  What  will  happen  if  I  do  ? '  said  the  Jaguar 
most  sniffily  and  most  cautious. 

1 1  don't  know,  because  I've  never  been 
scooped  out  of  my  shell  before ;  but  I  tell  you 
truly,  if  you  want  to  see  me  swim  away  you've 
only  got  to  drop  me  into  the  water.' 

'  I  don't  believe  it,'  said  Painted  Jaguar. 
'  You've   mixed   up    all    the    things    my    mother 


Beginning  of  the  Armadillos    109 

told  me  to  do  with  the  things  that  you  asked 
me  whether  I  was  sure  that  she  didn't  say,  till 
I  don't  know  whether  I'm  on  my  head  or  my 
painted  tail ;  and  now  you  come  and  tell  me  some- 
thing I  can  understand,  and  it  makes  me  more 
mixy  than  before.  My  mother  told  me  that  I 
was  to  drop  one  of  you  two  into  the  water,  and 
as  you  seem  so  anxious  to  be  dropped  I  think 
you  don't  want  to  be  dropped.  So  jump  into 
the  turbid  Amazon  and  be  quick  about  it.' 

'  I  warn  you  that  your  Mummy  won't  be 
pleased.  Don't  tell  her  I  didn't  tell  you,'  said 
Slow-Solid. 

'  If  you  say  another  word  about  what  my 
mother  said — '  the  Jaguar  answered,  but  he  had 
not  finished  the  sentence  before  Slow-and-Solid 
quietly  dived  into  the  turbid  Amazon,  swam 
under  water  for  a  long  way,  and  came  out  on 
the  bank  where  Stickly  -  Prickly  was  waiting 
for  him. 

'  That  was  a  very  narrow  escape,'  said  Stickly- 
Prickly.  '  I  don't  like  Painted  Jaguar.  What 
did  you  tell  him  that  you  were  ?  ' 

'  I  told  him  truthfully  that  I  was  a  truthful 
Tortoise,  but  he  wouldn't  believe  it,  and  he 
made  me  jump  into  the  river  to  see  if  I  was,  and 


no  Just  So  Stories 

I  was,  and  he  is  surprised.  Now  he's  gone  to 
tell  his  Mummy.     Listen  to  him  ! ' 

They  could  hear  Painted  Jaguar  roaring  up 
and  down  among  the  trees  and  the  bushes 
by  the  side  of  the  turbid  Amazon,  till  his 
Mummy  came. 

'  Son,  son !  '  said  his  mother  ever  so  many 
times,  graciously  waving  her  tail,  '  what  have 
you  been  doing  that  you  shouldn't  have  done  ?  ' 

'  I  tried  to  scoop  something  that  said  it  wanted 
to  be  scooped  out  of  its  shell  with  my  paw,  and 
my  paw  is  full  of  per-ickles,'  said  Painted  Jaguar. 

'  Son,  son ! '  said  his  mother  ever  so  many 
times,  graciously  waving  her  tail,  '  by  the 
prickles  in  your  paddy-paw  I  see  that  that  must 
have  been  a  Hedgehog.  You  should  have 
dropped  him  into  the  water.' 

'  I  did  that  to  the  other  thing ;  and  he  said 
he  was  a  Tortoise,  and  I  didn't  believe  him,  and 
it  was  quite  true,  and  he  has  dived  under  the 
turbid  Amazon,  and  he  won't  come  up  again, 
and  I  haven't  anything  at  all  to  eat,  and  I  think  we 
had  better  find  lodgings  somewhere  else.  They  are 
too  clever  on  the  turbid  Amazon  for  poor  me  !  ' 

'  Son,  son ! '  said  his  mother  ever  so  many 
times,   graciously   waving   her   tail,   '  now  attend 


Beginning  of  the  Armadillos   1 1 1 

to  me  and  remember  what  I  say.  A  Hedgehog 
curls  himself  up  into  a  ball  and  his  prickles  stick 
out  every  which  way  at  once.  By  this  you  may 
know  the  Hedgehog.' 

'  I  don't  like  this  old  lady  one  little  bit,'  said 
Stickly-Prickly,  under  the  shadow  of  a  large  leaf. 
'  I  wonder  what  else  she  knows  ? ' 

'A  Tortoise  can't  curl  himself  up,'  Mother 
Jaguar  went  on,  ever  so  many  times,  graciously 
waving  her  tail.  '  He  only  draws  his  head  and 
legs  into  his  shell.  By  this  you  may  know  the 
Tortoise.' 

'  I  don't  like  this  old  lady  at  all — at  all,'  said 
Slow  -  and  -  Solid  Tortoise.  '  Even  Painted 
Jaguar  can't  forget  those  directions.  It's  a  great 
pity  that  you  can't  swim,  Stickly-Prickly.' 

'Don't  talk  to  me,'  said  Stickly-Prickly. 
'Just  think  how  much  better  it  would  be  if  you 
could  curl  up.  This  is  a  mess !  Listen  to 
Painted  Jaguar.' 

Painted  Jaguar  was  sitting  on  the  banks  of 
the  turbid  Amazon  sucking  prickles  out  of  his 
paws  and  saying  to  himself — 

'  Can't  curl,  but  can  swim — 
Slow-Solid,  that's  him  ! 
Curls  up,  but  can't  swim — 
Stickly-Prickly,  that's  him  !  ' 


ii2  Just  So  Stories 

'  He'll  never  forget  that  this  month  of  Sun- 
days,' said  Stickly-Prickly.  '  Hold  up  my  chin, 
Slow-and-Solid.  I'm  going  to  try  to  learn  to 
swim.     It  may  be  useful.' 

'  Excellent  ! '  said  Slow-and-Solid ;  and  he 
held  up  Stickly-Prickly's  chin,  while  Stickly- 
Prickly  kicked  in  the  waters  of  the  turbid 
Amazon. 

'You'll  make  a  fine  swimmer  yet,' said  Slow- 
and-Solid.  '  Now,  if  you  can  unlace  my  back- 
plates  a  little,  I'll  see  what  I  can  do  towards 
curling  up.     It  may  be  useful.' 

Stickly-Prickly  helped  to  unlace  Tortoise's 
back-plates,  so  that  by  twisting  and  straining 
Slow-and-Solid  actually  managed  to  curl  up  a 
tiddy  wee  bit. 

1  Excellent ! '  said  Stickly-Prickly  ;  '  but  I 
shouldn't  do  any  more  just  now.  It's  making 
you  black  in  the  face.  Kindly  lead  me  into  the 
water  once  again  and  I'll  practise  that  side-stroke 
which  you  say  is  so  easy.'  And  so  Stickly- 
Prickly  practised,  and  Slow-Solid  swam  alongside. 

'  Excellent ! '  said  Slow-and-Solid.  '  A  little 
more  practice  will  make  you  a  regular  whale. 
Now,  if  I  may  trouble  you  to  unlace  my  back 
and   front    plates    two   holes   more,    I'll    try    that 


Beginning  of  the  Armadillos   113 

fascinating  bend  that  you  say  is  so  easy.  Won't 
Painted  Jaguar  be  surprised  !  ' 

'  Excellent ! '  said  Stickly-Prickly,  all  wet  from 
the  turbid  Amazon.  '  I  declare,  I  shouldn't 
know  you  from  one  of  my  own  family.  Two 
holes,  I  think,  you  said?  A  little  more  expres- 
sion, please,  and  don't  grunt  quite  so  much,  or 
Painted  Jaguar  may  hear  us.  When  you've 
finished,  I  want  to  try  that  long  dive  which 
you  say  is  so  easy.  Won't  Painted  Jaguar  be 
surprised  ! ' 

And  so  Stickly-Prickly  dived,  and  Slow-and- 
Solid  dived  alongside. 

'  Excellent ! '  said  Slow-and-Solid.  '  A  leetle 
more  attention  to  holding  your  breath  and  you 
will  be  able  to  keep  house  at  the  bottom  of  the 
turbid  Amazon.  Now  I'll  try  that  exercise  of 
wrapping  my  hind  legs  round  my  ears  which 
you  say  is  so  peculiarly  comfortable.  Won't 
Painted  Jaguar  be  surprised  ! ' 

'  Excellent ! '  said  Stickly-Prickly.  '  But  it's 
straining  your  back -plates  a  little.  They  are  all 
overlapping  now,  instead  of  lying  side  by  side.' 

'Oh,  that's  the  result  of  exercise,'  said  Slow- 
and-Solid.  '  I've  noticed  that  your  prickles 
seem  to  be   melting  into  one  another,   and   that 


ii4  Just  So  Stones 

you're  growing  to  look  rather  more  like  a  pine- 
cone,  and  less  like  a  chestnut-burr,  than  you 
used  to.' 

'  Am  I  ?  '  said  Stickly-Prickly.  '  That  comes 
from  my  soaking  in  the  water.  Oh,  won't 
Painted  Jaguar  be  surprised  ! ' 

They  went  on  with  their  exercises,  each 
helping  the  other,  till  morning  came ;  and  when 
the  sun  was  high  they  rested  and  dried  them- 
selves. Then  they  saw  that  they  were  both  of 
them  quite  different  from  what  they  had  been. 

'Stickly-Prickly,'  said  Tortoise  after  break- 
fast, '  I  am  not  what  I  was  yesterday ;  but  I 
think  that  I  may  yet  amuse  Painted  Jaguar.' 

'  That  was  the  very  thing  I  was  thinking  just 
now,'  said  Stickly-Prickly.  '  I  think  scales  are 
a  tremendous  improvement  on  prickles — to  say 
nothing  of  being  able  to  swim.  Oh,  won't 
Painted  Jaguar  be  surprised !  Let's  go  and 
find  him. 

By  and  by  they  found  Painted  Jaguar,  still 
nursing  his  paddy-paw  that  had  been  hurt  the 
night  before.  He  was  so  astonished  that  he  fell 
three  times  backward  over  his  own  painted  tail 
without  stopping. 

'Good     morning!'       said       Stickly-Prickly. 


Beginning  of  the  Armadillos    115 

'  And  how  is  your  dear  gracious  Mummy  this 
morning  ?  ' 

'  She  is  quite  well,  thank  you,'  said  Painted 
Jaguar;  '  but  you  must  forgive  me  if  I  do  not 
at  this  precise  moment  recall  your  name.' 

'  That's  unkind  of  you,'  said  Stickly-Prickly, 
'  seeing  that  this  time  yesterday  you  tried  to 
scoop  me  out  of  my  shell  with  your  paw.' 

'  But  you  hadn't  any  shell.  It  was  all 
prickles,'  said  Painted  Jaguar.  '  I  know  it  was. 
Just  look  at  my  paw  !  ' 

'  You  told  me  to  drop  into  the  turbid  Amazon 
and  be  drowned,'  said  Slow-Solid.  '  Why  are 
you  so  rude  and  forgetful  to-day  ?  ' 

'  Don't  you  remember  what  your  mother  told 
you  ?  '  said  Stickly-Prickly, — 

'  Can't  curl,  but  can  swim — 
Stickly-Prickly,  that's  him  ! 
Curls  up,  but  can't  swim — 
Slow-Solid,  that's  him  !  ' 

Then  they  both  curled  themselves  up  and 
rolled  round  and  round  Painted  Jaguar  till  his 
eyes  turned  truly  cart-wheels  in  his  head. 

Then  he  went  to  fetch  his  mother. 

'  Mother,'  he  said,  '  there  are  two  new  animals 
in  the  woods  to-day,  and  the  one  that   you  said 


This  is  a  picture  of  the  whole  story  of  the  Jaguar  and  the  Hedgehog  and 
the  Tortoise  and  the  Armadillo  all  in  a  heap.  It  looks  rather  the  same  any 
way  you  turn  it.  The  Tortoise  is  in  the  middle,  learning  how  to  bend, 
and  that  is  why  the  shelly  plates  on  his  back  are  so  spread  apart.  He  is 
standing  on  the  Hedgehog,  who  is  waiting  to  learn  how  to  swim.  The 
Hedgehog  is  a  Japanesy  Hedgehog,  because  I  couldn't  find  our  own 
Hedgehogs  in  the  garden  when  I  wanted  to  draw  them.  (It  was  daytime, 
and  they  had  gone  to  bed  under  the  dahlias.)  Speckly  Jaguar  is  looking 
over  the  edge,  with  his  paddy-paw  carefully  tied  up  by  his  mother,  because 
he  pricked  himself  scooping  the  Hedgehog.  He  is  much  surprised  to  see 
what  the  Tortoise  is  doing,  and  his  paw  is  hurting  him.  The  snouty 
thing  with  the  little  eye  that  Speckly  Jaguar  is  trying  to  climb  over  is  the 
Armadillo  that  the  Tortoise  and  the  Hedgehog  are  going  to  turn  into 
when  they  have  finished  bending  and  swimming.  It  is  all  a  magic  picture, 
and  that  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  I  haven't  drawn  the  Jaguar's  whiskers. 
The  other  reason  was  that  he  was  so  young  that  his  whiskers  had  not 
grown.     The  Jaguar's  pet  name  with  his  Mummy  was  Doffies. 


116 


H7 


Beginning  of  the  Armadillos    119 

couldn't  swim,  swims,  and  the  one  that  you  said 
couldn't  curl  up,  curls  ;  and  they've  gone  shares 
in  their  prickles,  I  think,  because  both  of  them 
are  scaly  all  over,  instead  of  one  being  smooth 
and  the  other  very  prickly ;  and,  besides  that, 
they  are  rolling  round  and  round  in  circles,  and 
I  don't  feel  comfy.' 

'  Son,  son ! '  said  Mother  Jaguar  ever  so  many 
times,  graciously  waving  her  tail,  '  a  Hedgehog 
is  a  Hedgehog,  and  can't  be  anything  but  a 
Hedgehog ;  and  a  Tortoise  is  a  Tortoise,  and 
can  never  be  anything  else.' 

'  But  it  isn't  a  Hedgehog,  and  it  isn't  a 
Tortoise.  It's  a  little  bit  of  both,  and  I  don't 
know  its  proper  name.' 

'  Nonsense  !  '  said  Mother  Jaguar.  '  Every- 
thing has  its  proper  name.  I  should  call  it 
"Armadillo"  till  I  found  out  the  real  one.  And 
I  should  leave  it  alone.' 

So  Painted  Jaguar  did  as  he  was  told,  especi- 
ally about  leaving  them  alone ;  but  the  curious 
thing  is  that  from  that  day  to  this,  O  Best 
Beloved,  no  one  on  the  banks  of  the  turbid 
Amazon  has  ever  called  Stickly-Prickly  and 
Slow-Solid  anything  except  Armadillo.  There 
are  Hedgehogs  and  Tortoises  in  other  places,   of 


120  Just  So  Stories 

course  (there  are  some  in  my  garden)  ;  but 
the  real  old  and  clever  kind,  with  their  scales 
lying  lippety  -  lappety  one  over  the  other,  like 
pine-cone  scales,  that  lived  on  the  banks  of 
the  turbid  Amazon  in  the  High  and  Far-Off 
Days,  are  always  called  Armadillos,  because 
they  were  so  clever. 

So   that's  all  right,    Best    Beloved.      Do   you 
see? 


I've  never  sailed  the  Amazon, 

I've  never  reached  Brazil ; 
But  the  Don  and  Magdalena, 

They  can  go  there  when  they  will ! 

Yes,  weekly  from  Southamptoi- 
Great  steamers,  white  and  gold, 
Go  rolling  down  to  Rio 
(Roll  down — roll  down  to  Rio  ! } 
And  I'd  like  to  roll  to  Rio 
Some  day  before  I'm  old  ! 

Ive  never  seen  a  Jaguar, 

Nor  yet  an  Armadill — 
O  dilloing  in  his  armour, 

And  I  s'pose  I  never  will, 

Unless  I  go  to  Rio 
These  wonders  to  behold — 
Roll  down — roll  down  to  Rio- 
Roll  really  down  to  Rio  ! 
Oh,  I'd  love  to  roll  to  Rio 
Some  day  before  I'm  old  ! 


121 


HOW  THE   FIRST   LETTER  WAS 
WRITTEN 


NCE  upon  a  most  early 
time  was  a  Neolithic 
man.  He  was  not  a 
Jute  or  an  Angle,  or 
even  a  Dravidian,  which 
he  might  well  have 
been,  Best  Beloved,  but 
never  mind  why.  He 
was  a  Primitive,  and  he 
lived  cavily  in  a  Cave, 
and  he  wore  very  few  clothes,  and  he  couldn't 
read  and  he  couldn't  write  and  he  didn't  want 
to,  and  except  when  he  was  hungry  he  was  quite 
happy.  His  name  was  Tegumai  Bopsulai,  and 
that  means,  '  Man  -  who -does -not -put -his- foot  - 
forward-in-a-hurry ';  but  we,  O  Best  Beloved, 
will   call    him    Tegumai,    for    short.      And   his 

123 


124  Just  So  Stories 

wife's  name  was  Teshumai  Tewindrow,  and  that 
means,  '  Lady  -  who  -  asks  -  a  -  very-  many-questions' ; 
but  we,  O  Best  Beloved,  will  call  her  Teshumai, 
for  short.  And  his  little  girl-daughter's  name 
was  Taffimai  Metallumai,  and  that  means, 
'  Small  -  person  -  without  -  any  -  manners  -who-ought- 
to-be-spanked  ' ;  but  I'm  going  to  call  her  Taffy. 
And  she  was  Tegumai  Bopsulai's  Best  Beloved 
and  her  own  Mummy's  Best  Beloved,  and  she 
was  not  spanked  half  as  much  as  was  good  for 
her ;  and  they  were  all  three  very  happy.  As 
soon  as  Taffy  could  run  about  she  went  every- 
where with  her  Daddy  Tegumai,  and  sometimes 
they  would  not  come  home  to  the  Cave  till  they 
were  hungry,  and  then  Teshumai  Tewindrow 
would  say,  '  Where  in  the  world  have  you  two 
been  to,  to  get  so  shocking  dirty  ?  Really,  my 
Tegumai,  you're  no  better  than  my  Taffy.' 

Now  attend  and  listen  ! 

One  day  Tegumai  Bopsulai  went  down 
through  the  beaver-swamp  to  the  Wagai  river 
to  spear  carp-fish  for  dinner,  and  Taffy  went 
too.  Tegumai 's  spear  was  made  of  wood  with 
shark's  teeth  at  the  end,  and  before  he  had 
caught  any  fish  at  all  he  accidentally  broke  it 
clean  across  by  jabbing  it  down  too  hard  on  the 


The  First  Letter  125 

bottom  of  the  river.  They  were  miles  and  miles 
from  home  (of  course  they  had  their  lunch 
with  them  in  a  little  bag),  and  Tegumai  had 
forgotten  to  bring  any  extra  spears. 

'  Here's  a  pretty  kettle  of  fish !  '  said  Tegumai. 
'  It  will  take  me  half  the  day  to  mend  this.' 

'  There's  your  big  black  spear  at  home,'  said 
Taffy.  '  Let  me  run  back  to  the  Cave  and  ask 
Mummy  to  give  it  me.' 

'  It's  too  far  for  your  little  fat  legs,'  said 
Tegumai.  '  Besides,  you  might  fall  into  the 
beaver-swamp  and  be  drowned.  We  must  make 
the  best  of  a  bad  job.'  He  sat  down  and  took 
out  a  little  leather  mendy-bag,  full  of  reindeer- 
sinews  and  strips  of  leather,  and  lumps  of  bee's- 
wax  and  resin,  and  began  to  mend  the  spear. 
Taffy  sat  down  too,  with  her  toes  in  the  water 
and  her  chin  in  her  hand,  and  thought  very 
hard.     Then  she  said — 

'  I  say,  Daddy,  it's  an  awful  nuisance  that  you 
and  I  don't  know  how  to  write,  isn't  it  ?  If  we 
did  we  could  send  a  message  for  the  new   spear.' 

'  Taffy,'  said  Tegumai,  '  how  often  have  I 
told  you  not  to  use  slang?  "Awful"  isn't  a 
pretty  word, — but  it  would  be  a  convenience, 
now  you  mention  it,  if  we  could  write  home.' 


126  Just  So  Stories 

Just  then  a  Stranger-man  came  along  the 
river,  but  he  belonged  to  a  far  tribe,  the 
Tewaras,  and  he  did  not  understand  one  word 
of  Tegumai's  language.  He  stood  on  the  bank 
and  smiled  at  Taffy,  because  he  had  a  little 
girl-daughter  of  his  own  at  home.  Tegumai 
drew  a  hank  of  deer-sinews  from  his  mendy-bag 
and  began  to  mend  his  spear. 

'  Come  here,'  said  Taffy.  '  Do  you  know 
where  my  Mummy  lives  ? '  And  the  Stranger- 
man  said  '  Urn  !  '  —  being,  as  you  know,  a 
Tewara. 

'  Silly ! '  said  Taffy,  and  she  stamped  her 
foot,  because  she  saw  a  shoal  of  very  big  carp 
going  up  the  river  just  when  her  Daddy  couldn't 
use  his  spear. 

'  Don't  bother  grown-ups,'  said  Tegumai,  so 
busy  with  his  spear-mending  that  he  did  not 
turn  round. 

'  I  aren't,'  said  Taffy.  '  I  only  want  him  to 
do  what  I  want  him  to  do,  and  he  won't  under- 
stand.' 

'  Then  don't  bother  me,'  said  Tegumai,  and 
he  went  on  pulling  and  straining  at  the  deer- 
sinews  with  his  mouth  full  of  loose  ends.  The 
Stranger-man — a  genuine  Tewara    he    was  —  sat 


The  First  Letter  127 

down  on  the  grass,  and  Taffy  showed  him  what 
her  Daddy  was  doing.  The  Stranger -man 
thought,  '  This  is  a  very  wonderful  child.  She 
stamps  her  foot  at  me  and  she  makes  faces.  She 
must  be  the  daughter  of  that  noble  Chief  who  is 
so  great  that  he  won't  take  any  notice  of  me.' 
So  he  smiled  more  politely  than  ever. 

'Now,'  said  Taffy,  'I  want  you  to  go  to  my 
Mummy,  because  your  legs  are  longer  than 
mine,  and  you  won't  fall  into  the  beaver-swamp, 
and  ask  for  Daddy's  other  spear — the  one  with 
the  black  handle  that  hangs  over  our  fireplace.' 

The  Stranger -man  (and  he  was  a  Tewara) 
thought,  '  This  is  a  very,  very  wonderful  child. 
She  waves  her  arms  and  she  shouts  at  me,  but  I 
don't  understand  a  word  of  what  she  says.  But 
if  I  don't  do  what  she  wants,  I  greatly  fear  that 
that  haughty  Chief,  Man -who -turns -his -back - 
on-callers,  will  be  angry.'  He  got  up  and 
twisted  a  big  flat  piece  of  bark  off  a  birch-tree 
and  gave  it  to  Taffy.  He  did  this,  Best  Be- 
loved, to  show  that  his  heart  was  as  white  as  the 
birch-bark  and  that  he  meant  no  harm ;  but 
Taffy  didn't  quite  understand. 

'  Oh  ! '  said  she.  '  Now  I  see  !  You  want 
my  Mummy's  living  address  ?      Of  course  I  can't 


128  Just  So  Stories 

write,  but  I  can  draw  pictures  if  I've  anything 
sharp  to  scratch  with.  Please  lend  me  the 
shark's  tooth  off  your  necklace. ' 

The  Stranger- man  (and  he  was  a  Tewara) 
didn't  say  anything,  so  Taffy  put  up  her  little 
hand  and  pulled  at  the  beautiful  bead  and  seed 
and  shark-tooth  necklace  round  his  neck. 

The  Stranger-man  (and  he  was  a.  Tewara) 
thought,  '  This  is  a  very,  very,  very  wonderful 
child.  The  shark's  tooth  on  my  necklace  is  a 
magic  shark's  tooth,  and  I  was  always  told  that 
if  anybody  touched  it  without  my  leave  they 
would  immediately  swell  up  or  burst,  but  this 
child  doesn't  swell  up  or  burst,  and  that  impor- 
tant Chief,  Man -who -attends -strictly -to- his  - 
business,  who  has  not  yet  taken  any  notice  of 
me  at  all,  doesn't  seem  to  be  afraid  that  she  will 
swell  up  or  burst.      I  had  better  be  more  polite.' 

So  he  gave  Taffy  the  shark's  tooth,  and  she 
lay  down  flat  on  her  tummy  with  her  legs  in  the 
air,  like  some  people  on  the  drawing-room  floor 
when  they  want  to  draw  pictures,  and  she  said, 
'  Now  I'll  draw  you  some  beautiful  pictures ! 
You  can  look  over  my  shoulder,  but  you  mustn't 
joggle.  First  I'll  draw  Daddy  fishing.  It  isn't 
very   like  him ;  but  Mummy  will  know,  because 


The  First  Letter  129 

I've  drawn  his  spear  all  broken.  Well,  now  I'll 
draw  the  other  spear  that  he  wants,  the  black- 
handled  spear.  It  looks  as  if  it  was  sticking  in 
Daddy's  back,  but  that's  because  the  shark's 
tooth  slipped  and  this  piece  of  bark  isn't  big 
enough.  That's  the  spear  I  want  you  to  fetch ; 
so  I'll  draw  a  picture  of  me  myself  'splaining  to 
you.  My  hair  doesn't  stand  up  like  I've  drawn, 
but  it's  easier  to  draw  that  way.  Now  I'll  draw 
you.  /  think  you're  very  nice  really,  but  I  can't 
make  you  pretty  in  the  picture,  so  you  mustn't 
be  'fended.     Are  you  'fended  ?  ' 

The  Stranger-man  (and  he  was  a  Tewara) 
smiled.  He  thought,  '  There  must  be  a  big 
battle  going  to  be  fought  somewhere,  and  this 
extraordinary  child,  who  takes  my  magic  shark's 
tooth  but  who  does  not  swell  up  or  burst,  is  tell- 
ing me  to  call  all  the  great  Chief's  tribe  to  help 
him.  He  is  a  great  Chief,  or  he  would  have 
noticed  me.' 

'  Look,'  said  Taffy,  drawing  very  hard  and 
rather  scratchily,  '  now  I've  drawn  you,  and  I've 
put  the  spear  that  Daddy  wants  into  your  hand, 
just  to  remind  you  that  you're  to  bring  it.  Now 
I'll  show  you  how  to  find  my  Mummy's  living- 
address.      You    go  along    till   you   come  to  two 


130  Just  So  Stories 

trees  (those  are  trees),  and  then  you  go  over  a 
hill  (that's  a  hill),  and  then  you  come  into  a 
beaver-swamp  all  full  of  beavers.  I  haven't  put 
in  all  the  beavers,  because  I  can't  draw  beavers, 
but  I've  drawn  their  heads,  and  that's  all  you'll 
see  of  them  when  you  cross  the  swamp.  Mind 
you  don't  fall  in !  Then  our  Cave  is  just  beyond 
the  beaver-swamp.  It  isn't  as  high  as  the  hills 
really,  but  I  can't  draw  things  very  small.  That's 
my  Mummy  outside.  She  is  beautiful.  She  is 
the  most  beautifullest  Mummy  there  ever  was, 
but  she  won't  be  'fended  when  she  sees  I've 
drawn  her  so  plain.  She'll  be  pleased  of  me 
because  I  can  draw.  Now,  in  case  you  forget, 
I've  drawn  the  spear  that  Daddy  wants  outside 
our  Cave.  It's  inside  really,  but  you  show  the 
picture  to  my  Mummy  and  she'll  give  it  you. 
I've  made  her  holding  up  her  hands,  because  I 
know  she'll  be  so  pleased  to  see  you.  Isn't  it  a 
beautiful  picture?  And  do  you  quite  under- 
stand, or  shall  I  'splain  again  ? ' 

The  Stranger-man  (and  he  was  a  Tew  am) 
looked  at  the  picture  and  nodded  very  hard. 
He  said  to  himself,  '  If  I  do  not  fetch  this  great 
Chief's  tribe  to  help  him,  he  will  be  slain  by  his 
enemies  who  are  coming  up  on   all    sides   with 


The  First  Letter 


131 


spears.  Now  I  see  why  the  great  Chief  pretended 
not  to  notice  me  !  He  feared  that  his  enemies 
were  hiding  in  the  bushes  and  would  see  him 
deliver  a  message  to  me.  Therefore  he  turned 
his  back,  and  let  the  wise  and  wonderful  child 
draw  the  terrible  picture  showing  me  his  diffi- 
culties. I  will  away  and  get  help  for  him  from 
his  tribe.'  He  did  not  even  ask  Taffy  the  road, 
but  raced  off  into  the  bushes  like  the  wind,  with 
the  birch-bark  in  his  hand,  and  Taffy  sat  down 
most  pleased. 

Now    this     is    the    picture     that    Taffy    had 
drawn  for  him  1 


132  Just  So  Stories 

'  What  have  you  been  doing,  Taffy  ? '  said 
Tegumai.  He  had  mended  his  spear  and  was 
carefully  waving  it  to  and  fro. 

'  It's  a  little  berangement  of  my  own,  Daddy 
dear,'  said  Taffy.  '  If  you  won't  ask  me  ques- 
tions, you'll  know  all  about  it  in  a  little  time, 
and  you'll  be  surprised.  You  don't  know  how 
surprised  you'll  be,  Daddy !  Promise  you'll 
be  surprised.' 

'  Very  well,'  said  Tegumai,  and  went  on 
fishing. 

The  Stranger -man — did  you  know  he  was 
a  Tewara  ? — hurried  away  with  the  picture  and 
ran  for  some  miles,  till  quite  by  accident  he 
found  Teshumai  Tewindrow  at  the  door  of  her 
Cave,  talking  to  some  other  Neolithic  ladies  who 
had  come  in  to  a  Primitive  lunch.  Taffy  was 
very  like  Teshumai,  especially  about  the  upper 
part  of  the  face  and  the  eyes,  so  the  Stranger- 
man —  always  a  pure  Tewara  —  smiled  politely 
and  handed  Teshumai  the  birch-bark.  He  had 
run  hard,  so  that  he  panted,  and  his  legs  were 
scratched  with  brambles,  but  he  still  tried  to 
be  polite. 

As  soon  as  Teshumai  saw  the  picture  she 
screamed  like   anything  and  flew  at  the  Stranger- 


The  First  Letter  133 

man.  The  other  Neolithic  ladies  at  once 
knocked  him  down  and  sat  on  him  in  a  long 
line  of  six,  while  Teshumai  pulled  his  hair. 
'  It's  as  plain  as  the  nose  on  this  Stranger-man's 
face,'  she  said.  '  He  has  stuck  my  Tegumai  all 
full  of  spears,  and  frightened  poor  Taffy  so  that 
her  hair  stands  all  on  end ;  and  not  content  with 
that,  he  brings  me  a  horrid  picture  of  how  it 
was  done.  Look ! '  She  showed  the  picture  to 
all  the  Neolithic  ladies  sitting  patiently  on  the 
Stranger-  man.  '  Here  is  my  Tegumai  with  his 
arm  broken ;  here  is  a  spear  sticking  into  his 
back ;  here  is  a  man  with  a  spear  ready  to 
throw ;  here  is  another  man  throwing  a  spear 
from  a  Cave,  and  here  are  a  whole  pack  of 
people '  (they  were  Taffy's  beavers  really,  but 
they  did  look  rather  like  people)  'coming  up 
behind  Tegumai.     Isn't  it  shocking  ! ' 

'Most  shocking ! '  said  the  Neolithic  ladies, 
and  they  filled  the  Stranger-man's  hair  with  mud 
(at  which  he  was  surprised),  and  they  beat  upon 
the  Reverberating  Tribal  Drums,  and  called  to- 
gether all  the  chiefs  of  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai, 
with  their  Hetmans  and  Dolmans,  all  Neguses, 
Woons,  and  Akhoonds  of  the  organisation,  in 
addition  to  the  Warlocks,  Angekoks,   Juju-men, 


134  Just  So  Stories 

Bonzes,  and  the  rest,  who  decided  that  before 
they  chopped  the  Stranger-man's  head  off  he 
should  instantly  lead  them  down  to  the  river 
and  show  them  where  he  had  hidden  poor 
Taffy. 

By  this  time  the  Stranger-man  (in  spite  of 
being  a  Tewara)  was  really  annoyed.  They 
had  filled  his  hair  quite  solid  with  mud ;  they 
had  rolled  him  up  and  down  on  knobby 
pebbles ;  they  had  sat  upon  him  in  a  long  line 
of  six;  they  had  thumped  him  and  bumped  him 
till  he  could  hardly  breathe ;  and  though  he  did 
not  understand  their  language,  he  was  almost 
sure  that  the  names  the  Neolithic  ladies  called 
him  were  not  ladylike.  However,  he  said 
nothing  till  all  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai  were 
assembled,  and  then  he  led  them  back  to  the 
bank  of  the  Wagai  river,  and  there  they  found 
Taffy  making  daisy  -  chains,  and  Tegumai 
carefully  spearing  small  carp  with  his  mended 
spear. 

'  Well,  you  have  been  quick ! '  said  Taffy. 
'  But  why  did  you  bring  so  many  people  ? 
Daddy  dear,  this  is  my  surprise.  Are  you  sur- 
prised, Daddy  ? ' 

'Very,'  said  Tegumai;    'but  it  has  ruined  all 


The  First  Letter  i  35 

my  fishing  for  the  day.  Why,  the  whole  dear, 
kind,  nice,  clean,  quiet  Tribe  is  here,  Taffy.' 

And  so  they  were.  First  of  all  walked 
Teshumai  Tewindrow  and  the  Neolithic  ladies, 
tightly  holding  on  to  the  Stranger-man,  whose 
hair  was  full  of  mud  (although  he  was  a  Tewara). 
Behind  them  came  the  Head  Chief,  the  Vice- 
Chief,  the  Deputy  and  Assistant  Chiefs  (all 
armed  to  the  upper  teeth),  the  Hetmans  and 
Heads  of  Hundreds,  Platoffs  with  their  Platoons, 
and  Dolmans  with  their  Detachments ;  Woons, 
Neguses,  and  Akhoonds  ranking  in  the  rear 
(still  armed  to  the  teeth).  Behind  them  was 
the  Tribe  in  hierarchical  order,  from  owners  of 
four  caves  (one  for  each  season),  a  private 
reindeer-run,  and  two  salmon-leaps,  to  feudal 
and  prognathous  Villeins,  semi-entitled  to  half  a 
bearskin  of  winter  nights,  seven  yards  from  the 
fire,  and  adscript  serfs,  holding  the  reversion  of  a 
scraped  marrow-bone  under  heriot  (Aren't  those 
beautiful  words,  Best  Beloved?).  They  were  all 
there,  prancing  and  shouting,  and  they  fright- 
ened every  fish  for  twenty  miles,  and  Tegumai 
thanked  them  in  a  fluid  Neolithic  oration. 

Then  Teshumai  Tewindrow  ran  down  and 
kissed  and  hugged  Taffy  very  much  indeed ;  but 


136  Just  So  Stories 

the  Head  Chief  of  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai  took 
Tegumai  by  the  top -knot  feathers  and  shook 
him  severely. 

'  Explain  !  Explain  !  Explain  !  '  cried  all  the 
Tribe  of  Tegumai. 

'  Goodness'  sakes  alive  ! '  said  Tegumai.  '  Let 
go  of  my  top-knot.  Can't  a  man  break  his 
carp -spear  without  the  whole  countryside  de- 
scending on  him  ?  You're  a  very  interfering 
people.' 

'  I  don't  believe  you've  brought  my  Daddy's 
black-handled  spear  after  all,'  said  Taffy.  'And 
what  are  you  doing   to  my  nice   Stranger-man  ?  ' 

They  were  thumping  him  by  twos  and  threes 
and  tens  till  his  eyes  turned  round  and  round. 
He  could  only  gasp  and  point  at  Taffy. 

'  Where  are  the  bad  people  who  speared  you, 
my  darling  ?  '  said  Teshumai  Tewindrow. 

'There  weren't  any,'  said  Tegumai.  'My 
only  visitor  this  morning  was  the  poor  fellow 
that  you  are  trying  to  choke.  Aren't  you  well, 
or  are  you  ill,  O  Tribe  of  Tegumai  ?  ' 

'  He  came  with  a  horrible  picture,'  said  the 
Head  Chief, — '  a  picture  that  showed  you  were 
full  of  spears.' 

'  Er — urn — Pr'aps    I'd    better    'splain    that    I 


The  First  Letter  137 

gave  him  that  picture,'  said  Taffy,  but  she  did 
not  feel  quite  comfy. 

'  You !  '  said  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai  all  to- 
gether. '  Small  -  person  -  with  -  no  -  manners  -  who  - 
ought -to -be- spanked  !     You?' 

'Taffy  dear,  I'm  afraid  we're  in  for  a  little 
trouble,'  said  her  Daddy,  and  put  his  arm  round 
her,  so  she  didn't  care. 

'  Explain  !  Explain  !  Explain  ! '  said  the  Head 
Chief  of  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai,  and  he  hopped 
on  one  foot. 

'  I  wanted  the  Stranger-man  to  fetch  Daddy's 
spear,  so  I  drawded  it,'  said  Taffy.  '  There 
wasn't  lots  of  spears.  There  was  only  one 
spear.  I  drawded  it  three  times  to  make  sure. 
I  couldn't  help  it  looking  as  if  it  stuck  into 
Daddy's  head  —  there  wasn't  room  on  the 
birch-bark;  and  those  things  that  Mummy  called 
bad  people  are  my  beavers.  I  drawded  them 
to  show  him  the  way  through  the  swamp ;  and 
I  drawded  Mummy  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cave 
looking  pleased  because  he  is  a  nice  Stranger- 
man,  and  /  think  you  are  just  the  stupidest 
people  in  the  world,'  said  Taffy.  '  He  is  a  very 
nice  man.  Why  have  you  filled  his  hair  with 
mud  ?    Wash  him  ! ' 


138 


Just  So  Stories 


Nobody  said  anything  at  all  for  a  long  time, 
till  the  Head  Chief  laughed ;  then  the  Stranger- 
man  (who  was  at  least  a  Tewara)  laughed;  then 
Tegumai  laughed  till  he  fell  down  flat  on  the 
bank;  then  all  the  Tribe  laughed  more  and 
worse  and  louder.  The  only  people  who  did 
not  laugh  were  Teshumai  Tewindrow  and  all 
the  Neolithic  ladies.  They  were  very  polite  to 
all  their  husbands,  and  said  'idiot ! '  ever  so  often. 

Then  the  Head  Chief  of  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai 
cried  and  said  and  sang,  '  O  Small-person-with- 
out  -  any  -  manners  -  who  -  ought  -  to  -  be  -  spanked, 
you've  hit  upon  a  great  invention  ! ' 

'I  didn't  intend  to;  I  only  wanted  Daddy's 
black-handled  spear,'  said  Taffy. 

'  Never  mind.  It  is  a  great  invention,  and 
some  day  men  will  call  it  writing.  At  present 
it  is  only  pictures,  and,  as  we  have  seen  to-day, 
pictures  are  not  always  properly  understood. 
But  a  time  will  come,  O  Babe  of  Tegumai,  when 
we  shall  make  letters — all  twenty-six  of  'em, — 
and  when  we  shall  be  able  to  read  as  well  as  to 
write,  and  then  we  shall  always  say  exactly  what 
we  mean  without  any  mistakes.  Let  the  Neo- 
lithic ladies  wash  the  mud  out  of  the  stranger's 
hair. 


The  First  Letter  139 

'  I  shall  be  glad  of  that,'  said  Taffy,  '  because, 
after  all,  though  you've  brought  every  single 
other  spear  in  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai,  you've  for- 
gotten my  Daddy's  black-handled  spear.' 

Then  the  Head  Chief  cried  and  said  and 
sang,  '  Taffy  dear,  the  next  time  you  write  a 
picture-letter,  you'd  better  send  a  man  who  can 
talk  our  language  with  it,  to  explain  what  it 
means.  I  don't  mind  it  myself,  because  I  am  a 
Head  Chief,  but  it's  very  bad  for  the  rest  of  the 
Tribe  of  Tegumai,  and,  as  you  can  see,  it  sur- 
prises the  stranger.' 

Then  they  adopted  the  Stranger -man  (a 
genuine  Tevvara  of  Tewar)  into  the  Tribe  of 
Tegumai,  because  he  was  a  gentleman  and  did 
not  make  a  fuss  about  the  mud  that  the  Neolithic 
ladies  had  put  into  his  hair.  But  from  that  day 
to  this  (and  I  suppose  it  is  all  Taffy's  fault),  very 
few  little  girls  have  ever  liked  learning  to  read 
or  write.  Most  of  them  prefer  to  draw  pictures 
and  play  about  with  their  Daddies  —  just  like 
Taffy. 


This  is  the  story  of  Taffimai  Metallumai  carved  on  an  old  tusk  a  very 
long  time  ago  by  the  Ancient  Peoples.  If  you  read  my  story,  or  have  it 
read  to  you,  you  can  see  how  it  is  all  told- out  on  the  tusk.  The  tusk  was 
part  of  an  old  tribal  trumpet  that  belonged  to  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai. 
The  pictures  were  scratched  on  it  with  a  nail  or  something,  and  then  the 
scratches  were  filled  up  with  black  wax,  but  all  the  dividing  lines  and  the 
five  little  rounds  at  the  bottom  were  filled  with  red  wax.  When  it  was 
new  there  was  a  sort  of  network  of  beads  and  shells  and  precious  stones 
at  one  end  of  it ;  but  now  that  has  been  broken  and  lost — all  except  the 
little  bit  that  you  see.  The  letters  round  the  tusk  are  magic — Runic 
magic, — and  if  you  can  read  them  you  will  find  out  something  rather  new. 
The  tusk  is  of  ivory — very  yellow  and  scratched.  It  is  two  feet  long  and 
two  feet  round,  and  weighs  eleven  pounds  nine  ounces. 


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141 


There  runs  a  road  by  Merrow  Down — 

A  grassy  track  to-day  it  is — 
An  hour  out  of  Guildford  town, 

Above  the  river  Wey  it  is. 

Here,  when  they  heard  the  horse-bells  ring, 
The  ancient  Britons  dressed  and  rode 

To  watch  the  dark  Phoenicians  bring 
Their  goods  along  the  Western  Road. 

And  here,  or  hereabouts,  they  met 
To  hold  their  racial  talks  and  such — 

To  barter  beads  for  Whitby  jet, 

And  tin  for  gay  shell  torques  and  such. 

But  long  and  long  before  that  time 
(When  bison  used  to  roam  on  it) 

Did  Taffy  and  her  Daddy  climb 

That  down,  and  had  their  home  on  it. 

Then  beavers  built  in  Broadstonebrook 

And  made  a  swamp  where  Bramley  stands ; 

And  bears  from  Shere  would  come  and  look 
For  TafKmai  where  Shamley  stands. 

The  Wey,  that  Taffy  called  Wagai, 
Was  more  than  six  times  bigger  then  ; 

And  all  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai 
They  cut  a  noble  figure  then  ! 


143 


HOW  THE  ALPHABET  WAS   MADE 


H  E  week  after  Taf fimai 
Metallumai  (we  will  still 
call  her  Taffy,  Best  Be- 
loved) made  that  little 
mistake  about  her 
Daddy's  spear  and  the 
Stranger  -  man  and  the 
picture  -  letter  and  all, 
she  went  carp  -  fishing 
again  with  her  Daddy. 
Her  Mummy  wanted 
her  to  stay  at  home 
and  help  hang  up  hides  to  dry  on  the  big 
drying-poles  outside  their  Neolithic  Cave,  but 
Taffy  slipped  away  down  to  her  Daddy  quite 
early,  and  they  fished.  Presently  she  began 
to  giggle,  and  her  Daddy  said,  '  Don't  be  silly, 
child.' 


i45 


146  Just  So  Stories 

'  But  wasn't  it  inciting  ! '  said  Taffy.  '  Don't 
you  remember  how  the  Head  Chief  puffed  out 
his  cheeks,  and  how  funny  the  nice  Stranger- 
man  looked  with  the  mud  in  his  hair  ?  ' 

'  Well  do  I,'  said  Tegumai.  '  I  had  to  pay 
two  deerskins  —  soft  ones  with  fringes  —  to  the 
Stranger-man  for  the  things  we  did  to  him.' 

'We  didn't  do  anything,'  said  Taffy.  'It 
was  Mummy  and  the  other  Neolithic  ladies — 
and  the  mud.' 

'  We  won't  talk  about  that,'  said  her  Daddy. 
'  Let's  have  lunch.' 

Taffy  took  a  marrow-bone  and  sat  mousy- 
quiet  for  ten  whole  minutes,  while  her  Daddy 
scratched  on  pieces  of  birch-bark  with  a  shark's 
tooth.  Then  she  said,  '  Daddy,  I've  thinked 
of  a  secret  surprise.  You  make  a  noise — any 
sort  of  noise.' 

'  Ah !  '  said  Tegumai.  '  Will  that  do  to 
begin  with  ? ' 

'  Yes,'  said  Taffy.  'You  look  just  like  a  carp- 
fish  with  its  mouth  open.     Say  it  again,  please.' 

'  Ah !  ah  !  ah ! '  said  her  Daddy.  '  Don't 
be  rude,  my  daughter.' 

'  I'm  not  meaning  rude,  really  and  truly,' 
said   Taffy.      '  It's   part    of     my    secret-surprise- 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made  147 

think.  Do  say  ah,  Daddy,  and  keep  your 
mouth  open  at  the  end,  and  lend  me  that 
tooth.  I'm  going  to  draw  a  carp-fish's  mouth 
wide-open.' 

'  What  for  ?  '  said  her  Daddy. 

'  Don't  you  see  ?  '  said  Taffy,  scratching  away 
on  the  bark.  'That  will  be  our  little  secret 
s'prise.  When  I  draw  a  carp-fish  with  his 
mouth  open  in  the  smoke  at  the  back  of  our 
Cave — if  Mummy  doesn't  mind — it  will  remind 
you  of  that  ah-noise.  Then  we  can  play  that 
it  was  me  jumped  out  of  the  dark  and  s'prised 
you  with  that  noise — same  as  I  did  in  the 
beaver-swamp  last  winter.' 

'  Really  ? '  said  her  Daddy,  in  the  voice  that 
grown-ups  use  when  they  are  truly  attending. 
'  Go  on,  Taffy.' 

'  Oh  bother ! '  she  said.  '  I  can't  draw  all 
of  a  carp-fish,  but  I  can  draw  something  that 
means  a  carp-fish's  mouth.  Don't 
you  know  how  they  stand  on  their  ' 
heads  rooting  in  the  mud  ?  Well, 
here's  a  pretence  carp-fish  (we  can 
play  that  the  rest  of  him  is  drawn).  Here's  just 
his  mouth,  and  that  means  ah. '  And  she  drew 
this.     (1.) 


148  Just  So  Stories 

'  That's  not  bad,'  said  Tegumai,  and  scratched 
on  his  own  piece  of  bark  for  himself ;  but  you've 
forgotten  the  feeler  that  hangs  across  his  mouth.' 

'  But  I  can't  draw,  Daddy.' 

'  You    needn't    draw     anything    of     him    ex- 
cept   just    the   opening   of   his   mouth 
and   the     feeler     across.      Then    we'll 
_/2\     /  know     he's      a     carp-fish,    'cause     the 
V/    perches  and  trouts  haven't  got  feelers. 
Look     here,     Taffy.'      And     he     drew 
this.    (2.) 

'  Now  I'll    copy   it.'    said   Taffy.      '  Will  you 
understand    this    when   you    see    it  ? ' 
And  she  drew  this.     (3.) 

'  Perfectly,'      said      her       Daddy.       T      V  J 
'And  I'll   be  quite    as  s'prised  when  Vv 
I    see    it    anywhere,    as    if    you    had 
jumped     out     from     behind     a     tree    and     said 
"Ah!"' 

'  Now,  make  another  noise,'  said  Taffy,  very 
proud. 

'  Yah ! '  said  her  Daddy,  very  loud. 

'  H'm,'  said  Taffy.  'That's  a  mixy  noise. 
The  end  part  is  ^^-carp-fish-mouth ;  but  what 
can  we  do  about  the  front  part  ?  Ter-yer-yer 
and  ah  1  Ta  !  ' 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made   149 

1  It's  very  like  the  carp-fish-mouth  noise. 
Let's  draw  another  bit  of  the  carp-fish  and  join 
'  em,'  said  her  Daddy.  He  was  quite  incited 
too. 

'  No.  If  they're  joined,  I'll  forget.  Draw 
it  separate.  Draw  his  tail.  If  he's  standing  on 
his  head  the  tail  will  come  first.  'Sides,  I  think 
I  can  draw  tails  easiest,'  said  Taffy. 

'A   good    notion,'    said   Tegumai.       'Here's 
a    carp-fish    tail   for    the   .j^r-noise.' 
And  he  drew  this.     (4.) 

'  I'll  try  now,'  said  Taffy. 
'  'Member  I  can't  draw  like  you, 
Daddy.     Will  it    do  if   I    just  draw  4 

the  split   part   of   the    tail,  and    the    sticky-down 
line  for  where   it  joins  ?  '     And  she 

T3     drew  this.     (5.) 
Her  Daddy  nodded,  and  his  eyes 
were  shiny  bright  with  'citement. 
5  'That's      beautiful,'      she      said. 

1  Now  make  another  noise,  Daddy.' 
'  Oh  ! '  said  her  Daddy,  very  loud. 
'  That's   quite   easy,'  said  Taffy.     'You  make 
your  mouth  all  around  like   an  egg  or  a  stone. 
So  an  egg  or  a  stone  will  do  for  that.' 

'  You     can't     always    find    eggs     or     stones. 


150  Just  So  Stories 

We'll    have  to    scratch   a   round    something    like 
one.'     And  he  drew  this.     (6.) 

'  My  gracious  ! '  said  Taffy,  '  what 
a  lot  of  noise-pictures  we've  made, — 
carp-mouth,  carp-tail,  and  egg !     Now, 

6  make  another  noise,  Daddy.' 

'  Ssh ! '     said    her    Daddy,    and     frowned    to 
himself,  but  Taffy  was  too  incited  to  notice. 

'  That's   quite   easy,'    she  said,  scratching   on 
the  bark. 

1  Eh,  what  ? '  said  her  Daddy.  '  I  meant  I 
was  thinking,  and  didn't  want  to  be  disturbed.' 
'  It's  a  noise  just  the  same.  It's  the  noise  a 
snake  makes,  Daddy,  when  it  is  thinking  and 
doesn't  want  to  be  disturbed.  Let's 
make  the  ssh-no'ise  a  snake.  Will  this 
do?'     And  she  drew  this.     (7.) 

'There,'  she  said.     'That's  another 
s'prise- secret.       When     you     draw     a  7 

hissy-snake  by  the  door  of  your  little  back-cave 
where  you  mend  the  spears,  I'll  know  you're 
thinking  hard ;  and  I'll  come  in  most  mousy- 
quiet.  And  if  you  draw  it  on  a  tree  by  the 
river  when  you're  fishing,  I'll  know  you  want 
me  to  walk  most  most  mousy-quiet,  so  as  not 
to  shake  the  banks.' 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made  151 

'  Perfectly  true,'  said  Tegumai.  '  And 
there's  more  in  this  game  than  you  think. 
Taffy,  dear,  I've  a  notion  that  your  Daddy's 
daughter  has  hit  upon  the  finest  thing  that 
there  ever  was  since  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai 
took  to  using  shark's  teeth  instead  of  flints  for 
their  spear-heads.  I  believe  we've  found  out 
the  big  secret  of  the  world.' 

'  Why  ?  '  said  Taffy,  and  her  eyes  shone  too 
with  incitement. 

'  I'll  show,'  said  her  Daddy.  '  What's  water 
in  the  Tegumai  language  ?  ' 

'  Ya,  of  course,  and  it  means  river  too — 
like  Wagai-j>tf — the  Wagai  river.' 

'  What  is  bad  water  that  gives  you  fever  if 
you  drink  it — black  water — swamp-water  ?  ' 

'  Yo,  of  course.' 

1  Now  look,'    said   her    Daddy, 
saw  this  scratched  by  the  side  of  a 
pool  in  the  beaver-swamp  ?  '      And 
he  drew  this.     (8.) 

'  Carp  -  tail  and  round  egg. 
Two  noises  mixed  !  Yo,  bad 
water,'  said  Taffy.  '  'Course  I  wouldn't  drink 
that  water  because  I'd  know  you  said  it  was 
bad.' 


152  Just  So  Stories 

'  But  I  needn't  be  near  the  water  at  all.  I 
might  be  miles  away,  hunting,  and  still ' 

'  And  still  it  would  be  just  the  same  as  if 
you  stood  there  and  said,  "  G'way,  Taffy,  or 
you'll  get  fever."  All  that  in  a  carp -fish- 
tail and  a  round  egg !  O  Daddy,  we  must  tell 
Mummy,  quick  !  '  and  Taffy  danced  all  round 
him. 

'Not  yet,'  said  Tegumai;  'not  till  we've 
gone  a  little  further.  Let's  see.  To  is  bad 
water,  but  so  is  food  cooked  on  the 
fire,    isn't   it?'     And  he   drew   this. 

(9.) 

'  Yes.     Snake  and  egg,'  said  Taffy 

9  '  So  that   means   dinner's    ready.     If 

you    saw    that   scratched    on    a  tree  you'd  know 

it  was  time  to  come  to  the  Cave.     So'd  I.' 

'  My  Winkie  ! '  said  Tegumai.  '  That's  true 
too.  But  wait  a  minute.  I  see  a  difficulty. 
So  means  "  come  and  have  dinner,"  but  sho  means 
the  drying-poles  where  we  hang  our  hides.' 

'  Horrid  old  drying-poles  ! '  said  Taffy.  '  I 
hate  helping  to  hang  heavy,  hot,  hairy  hides  on 
them.  If  you  drew  the  snake  and  egg,  and  I 
thought  it  meant  dinner,  and  I  came  in  from 
the  wood  and  found  that  it  meant  I  was  to  help 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made  153 

Mummy  hang  the  two  hides  on  the  drying-poles, 
what  would  I  do  ? ' 

'  You'd  be  cross.  So'd  Mummy.  We  must 
make  a  new  picture  for  sho.  We  must  draw  a 
spotty  snake  that  hisses  sh-sh,  and  we'll  play 
that  the  plain  snake  only  hisses  ssss.' 

'  I  couldn't  be  sure  how  to  put  in  the  spots,' 
said  Taffy.  '  And  p'raps  if  you  were  in  a  hurry 
you  might  leave  them  out,  and  I'd  think  it  was 
so  when  it  was  sho,  and  then  Mummy  would 
catch  me  just  the  same.  No!  I  think  we'd 
better  draw  a  picture  of  the  horrid  high  drying- 
poles  their  very  selves,  and  make  quite  sure. 
I'll  put  them  in  just  after  the 
hissy- snake.  Look!'  And 
she  drew  this.   (10.) 

'  P'raps    that's   safest.     It's 
very    like    our    drying -poles,  IO 

anyhow,'  said  her  Daddy,  laughing.  'Now 
I'll  make  a  new  noise  with  a  snake  and 
drying -pole  sound  in  it.  I'll  say  shi.  That's 
Tegumai  for  spear,  Taffy.'     And  he  laughed. 

'  Don't  make  fun  of  me,'  said  Taffy,  as  she 
thought  of  her  picture -letter  and  the  mud 
in  the  Stranger -man's  hair.  '  Tou  draw  it, 
Daddy.' 


154  Just  So  Stories 

6  We  won't   have   beavers  or   hills    this  time, 
eh?'  said  her  Daddy,,     'I'll  just  draw  a  straight 
line  for  my   spear,'     and  he   drew 
this,     (iio) 

'  Even  Mummy  couldn't  mistake 
that  for  me  being  killed.' 

'  Please  don't,  Daddy.  It  makes 
me  uncomfy.  Do  some  more  noises.  We're 
getting  on  beautifully.' 

'  Er-hm ! '  said  Tegumai,  looking  up.  '  We'll 
say  shu.     That  means  sky„' 

Taffy  drew  the  snake  and  the  drying-pole. 
Then  she  stopped.  '  We  must  make  a  new 
picture  for  that  end  sound,  mustn't  we  ?  ' 

'  Shu-shu-u-u-u  1 '  said  her  Daddy.  '  Why, 
it's  just  like  the  round-egg-sound  made  thin.' 

'  Then  s'pose  we  draw  a  thin  round  egg,  and 
pretend  it's  a  frog  that  hasn't  eaten  anything  for 
years.' 

'  N-no,'  said  her  Daddy.  '  If  we  drew  that 
in  a  hurry  we  might  mistake  it  for  the  round 
egg  itself.  Shu-shu-shu!  I'll  tell  you 
what  we'll  do.  We'll  open  a  little  hole 
at  the  end  of  the  round  &gg  to  show  how 
the  O-noise  runs  out  all  thin,  ooo-oo-oo. 
Like  this.'     And  he  drew  this.     (12.) 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made  155 


'  Oh,  that's  lovely !  Much  better  than  a  thin 
frog.  Go  on,'  said  Taffy,  using  her  shark's 
tooth. 

Her  Daddy  went  on  drawing,  and  his  hand 
shook    with    incitement.        «~t  r^  ^ 

He  went  on  till  he  had     {     jjL  f  I     y/|  * 

drawn  this.     (13.)  ,Yj(  f  T"T 

6  Don't      look       up,    U      IV      U      X- 

Taffy,'    he    said„      '  Try  I3 

if  you    can   make   out   what    that   means    in  the 

Tegumai   language.      If    you    can,    we've    found 

the  Secret.' 

'  Snake  —  pole  -=  broken  -  egg  ■ —  carp  -  tail  and 
carp-mouth,'  said  Taffy.  '  Shu-ya.  Sky-water 
(rain).'  Just  then  a  drop  fell  on  her  hand,  for 
the  day  had  clouded  over.  '  Why,  Daddy,  it's 
raining.     Was  that  what  you  meant  to  tell  me  ?  ' 

'  Of  course,'  said  her  Daddy.  'And  I  told 
it  you  without  saying  a  word,  didn't  I  ?  ' 

'Well,  I  think  I  would  have  known  it  in  a 
minute,  but  that  raindrop  made  me  quite  sure. 
I'll  always  remember  now.  Shu-ya  means  rain,  or 
"  it  is  going  to  rain."  Why,  Daddy ! '  She  got 
up  and  danced  round  him.  £  S'pose  you  went 
out  before  I  was  awake,  and  drawed  shu-ya  in 
the  smoke  on  the  wall,  I'd  know  it  was  going  to 


156  Just  So  Stories 

rain  and  I'd  take  my  beaver-skin  hood.  Wouldn't 
Mummy  be  surprised  !  ' 

Tegumai  got  up  and  danced.  (Daddies 
didn't  mind  doing  those  things  in  those  days.) 
'  More  than  that !  More  than  that ! '  he  said. 
'  S'pose  I  wanted  to  tell  you  it  wasn't  going  to 
rain  much  and  you  must  come  down  to  the 
river,  what  would  we  draw?  Say  the  words  in 
Tegumai-talk  first.' 

' Shu-ya-las,  ya  maru.  (Sky- water  ending. 
River  come  to.)  What  a  lot  of  new  sounds! 
/  don't  see  how  we  can  draw  them.' 

'  But  I  do — but  I  do  ! '  said  Tegumai.  '  Just 
attend  a  minute,  Taffy,  and  we  won't  do  any 
more  to  -  day.  We've  got  shu-ya  all  right, 
haven't  we  ?  but  this  las  is  a  teaser.  La-la-la  1 ' 
and  he  waved  his  shark-tooth. 

'  There's  the  hissy-snake  at  the  end  and  the 
carp  -  mouth  before  the  snake  —  as-as-as.  We 
only  want  la-la,'  said  Taffy. 

'  I  know  it,  but  we  have  to  make  la-la.  And 
we're  the  first  people  in  all  the  world  who've 
ever  tried  to  do  it,  Taffimai ! ' 

'  Well,'  said  Taffy,  yawning,  for  she  was 
rather  tired.  'Las  means  breaking  or  finishing 
as  well  as  ending,  doesn't  it  ?  ' 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made   157 

'So  it  does,'  said  Tegumai.  '  To-las  means 
that  there's  no  water  in  the  tank  for  Mummy  to 
cook  with — just  when  I'm   going  hunting,   too.' 

'  And  shi-las  means  that  your  spear  is  broken. 
If  I'd  only  thought  of  that  instead  of  drawing 
silly  beaver  pictures  for  the  Stranger ! ' 

'  La  !  La  !  La  I  '  said  Tegumai,  waiving  his 
stick  and  frowning.     '  Oh  bother  !  ' 

'  I  could  have  drawn  shi  quite  easily,'  Taffy 
went  on.  '  Then  I'd  have  drawn  your  spear  all 
broken — this  way!'     And  she  drew.     (14.) 

'The    very    thing,'    said    Tegumai.      'That's 


la  all  over.  It  isn't  like  any  of  the  other  marks, 
either.'     And  he  drew  this.     (15.) 

'  Now  for  ya.  Oh,  we've  done  that  before. 
Now  for  maru.  Mum-mum-mum.  Mum  shuts 
one's  mouth  up,  doesn't  it?  We'll  draw  a  shut 
mouth  like  this.'    And  he  drew.     (16.) 

'  Then  the  carp  -  mouth  open.  That  makes 
Ma-ma-ma !  But  what  about  this  rrrrr-thing, 
Taffy  ? ' 


158  Just  So  Stories 

4  It  sounds  all  rough  and  edgy,  like  your 
shark-tooth  saw  when  you're  cutting  out  a  plank 
for  the  canoe,'  said  Taffy. 

^*     y         '  You   mean    all    sharp  at  the 
fsCy, f/L     edges,  like  this  ?  '   said  Tegumai. 
■7  And  he  drew.     (17.) 

'  'Xactly,'  said  Taffy.  '  But  we  don't  want 
all  those  teeth  :  only  put  two.' 

'  I'll  only  put  in  one,'  said  Tegumai.  '  If 
this  game  of  ours  is  going  to  be  what  I  think  it 
will,    the    easier    we    make    our    sound-  ^ 

pictures     the      better      for      everybody.'     // 
And  he  drew.     (18.)  "     L 

'Now   we've    got   it,'    said   Tegumai, 
standing   on  one    leg.      '  I'll    draw    'em  all   in  a 
string  like  fish.' 

1  Hadn't  we  better  put  a  little  bit  of  stick  or 
something  between  each  word,  so's  they  won't 
rub  up  against  each  other  and  jostle,  same  as  if 
they  were  carps  ?  ' 

'  Oh,  I'll  leave  a  space  for  that,'  said  her 
Daddy.  And  very  incitedly  he  drew  them  all 
without  stopping,  on  a  big  new  bit  of  birch- 
bark.     (19.) 

' Shu-ya-las  ya-maru'  said  Taffy,  reading  it 
out  sound  by  sound. 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made  159 

'That's   enough   for    to-day,'    said   Tegumai. 
'  Besides,    you're    getting    tired,    Taffy.       Never 


mind,  dear.  We'll  finish  it  all  to-morrow,  and 
then  we'll  be  remembered  for  years  and  years 
after  the  biggest  trees  you  can  see  are  all  chopped 
up  for  firewood.' 

So  they  went  home,  and  all  that  evening 
Tegumai  sat  on  one  side  of  the  fire  and  Taffy 
on  the  other,  drawing  yas  and  yo's  and  shu'j 
and  shi's  in  the  smoke  on  the  wall  and  giggling 
together  till  her  Mummy  said,  '  Really,  Tegumai, 
you're  worse  than  my  Taffy.' 

1  Please  don't  mind,'  said  Taffy.  '  It's  only 
our  secret-s'prise,  Mummy  dear,  and  we'll  tell 
you  all  about  it  the  very  minute  it's  done ;  but 
please  don't  ask  me  what  it  is  now,  or  else  I'll 
have  to  tell.' 

So  her  Mummy  most  carefully  didn't ;  and 
bright  and  early  next  morning  Tegumai  went 
down  to  the  river  to  think  about  new  sound- 
pictures,  and  when  Taffy  got  up  she  saw  Ya-las 


160  Just  So  Stories 

(water  is  ending  or  running  out)  chalked  on 
the  side  of  the  big  stone  water-tank,  outside 
the  Cave. 

'  Urn,'  said  Taffy.  '  These  picture-sounds 
are  rather  a  bother !  Daddy's  just  as  good  as 
come  here  himself  and  told  me  to  get  more  water 
for  Mummy  to  cook  with.'  She  went  to  the 
spring  at  the  back  of  the  house  and  filled  the 
tank  from  a  bark  bucket,  and  then  she  ran  down 
to  the  river  and  pulled  her  Daddy's  left  ear— the 
one  that  belonged  to  her  to  pull  when  she  was 
good. 

'  Now  come  along  and  we'll  draw  all  the 
left-over  sound-pictures,'  said  her  Daddy,  and 
they  had  a  most  inciting  day  of  it,  and  a  beauti- 
ful lunch  in  the  middle,  and  two  games  of 
romps.  When  they  came  to  T,  Taffy  said  that 
as  her  name,  and  her  Daddy's,  and  her  Mummy's 
all  began  with  that  sound,  they  should  draw  a 
sort  of  family  group  of  themselves  holding  hands. 
That  was  all  very  well  to  draw  once  or  twice ; 
but  when  it  came  to  drawing  it  six  or  seven 
times,  Taffy  and  Tegumai  drew  it  scratchier  and 
scratchier,  till  at  last  the  T-sound  was  only  a 
thin  long  Tegumai  with  his  arms  out  to  hold 
Taffy   and  Teshumai.      You  can  see  from  these 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made  16 


i 


three    pictures    partly    how    it   happened.      (20, 
21,  22.) 

Many  of  the  other  pictures  were  much  too 
beautiful  to  begin  with,  especially  before  lunch, 
but  as  they  were  drawn  over  and  over  again  on 


sr  T  T 


23 


birch-bark,  they  became  plainer  and  easier,  till 
at  last  even  Tegumai  said  he  could  find  no  fault 
with  them.  They  turned  the  hissy-snake  the 
other  way  round  for  the  Z-sound,  to  show  it 
was  hissing   backwards  in  a  soft  and  gentle  way 


e 


24  25  26  27 

(23) ;  and  they  just  made  a  twiddle  for  E,  be- 
cause it  came  into  the  pictures  so  often  (24)  ;  and 
they  drew  pictures  of  the  sacred  Beaver  of  the 
Tegumais  for  the  B-sound  (25,  26,  27,  28) ; 
and   because   it   was   a   nasty,   nosy    noise,    they 


1 62  Just  So  Stories 

just  drew  noses  for  the  N-sound,  till  they  were 
tired  (29) ;  and  they  drew  a  picture  of  the  big 
lake-pike's  mouth  for  the  greedy  Ga-sound  (30)  ; 
and  they    drew  the   pike's   mouth    again  with   a 

28  29  30 

spear  behind  it  for  the  scratchy,  hurty  Ka-sound 
(31) ;  and  they  drew  pictures  of  a  little  bit  of 
the  winding  Wagai  river  for  the  nice  windy- 
windy  Wa-sound  (32,  33) ;  and  so  on  and  so 
forth  and   so   following  till  they   had  done   and 

3'  32  33 

drawn  all  the  sound-pictures  that  they  wanted, 
and  there  was  the  Alphabet,  all  complete. 

And  after  thousands  and  thousands  and 
thousands  of  years,  and  after  Hieroglyphics  and 
Demotics,  and  Nilotics,  and  Cryptics,  and  Cufics, 
and   Runics,    and    Dorics,   and    Ionics,    and    all 


How  the  Alphabet  was  Made  163 

sorts  of  other  ricks  and  tricks  (because  the 
Woons,  and  the  Neguses,  and  the  Akhoonds, 
and  the  Repositories  of  Tradition  would  never 
leave  a  good  thing  alone  when  they  saw  it), 
the  fine  old  easy,  understandable  Alphabet — 
A,  B,  C,  D,  E,  and  the  rest  of  'em — got  back 
into  its  proper  shape  again  for  all  Best  Beloveds 
to  learn  when  they  are  old  enough. 

But  /  remember  Tegumai  Bopsulai,  and 
Taffimai  Metallumai  and  Teshumai  Tewindrow, 
her  dear  Mummy,  and  all  the  days  gone  by. 
And  it  was  so — just  so — a  little  time  ago — 
on  the  banks  of  the  big  Wagai ! 


ONE  of  the  first  things  that  Tegumai  Bopsulai  did  after  Taffy  and  he  had 
made  the  Alphabet  was  to  make  a  magic  Alphabet-necklace  of  all  the  letters, 
so  that  it  could  be  put  in  the  Temple  of  Tegumai  and  kept  for  ever  and 
ever.  All  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai  brought  their  most  precious  beads  and 
beautiful  things,  and  Taffy  and  Tegumai  spent  five  whole  years  getting 
the  necklace  in  order.  This  is  a  picture  of  the  magic  Alphabet-necklace. 
The  string  was  made  of  the  finest  and  strongest  reindeer-sinew,  bound 
round  with  thin  copper   wire. 

Beginning  at  the  top,  the  first  bead  is  an  old  silver  one  that  belonged 
to  the  Head  Priest  of  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai ;  then  come  three  black 
mussel-pearls;  next  is  a  clay  bead  (blue  and  gray);  next  a  nubbly  gold 
bead  sent  as  a  present  by  a  tribe  who  got  it  from  Africa  (but  it 
must  have  been  Indian  really)  ;  the  next  is  a  long  flat-sided  glass  bead 
from  Africa  (the  Tribe  of  Tegumai  took  it  in  a  fight)  ;  then  come  two 
clay  beads  (white  and  green),  with  dots  on  one,  and  dots  and  bands  on 
the  other  ;  next  are  three  rather  chipped  amber  beads  ;  then  three  clay 
beads  (red  and  white),  two  with  dots,  and  the  big  one  in  the  middle  with  a 
toothed  pattern.  Then  the  letters  begin,  and  between  each  letter  is  a  little 
whitish   clay    bead    with  the   letter   repeated    small.      Here   are  the  letters — 

A  is  scratched  on  a  tooth — an  elk-tusk  I  think. 

B  is  the  Sacred  Beaver  of  Tegumai  on  a  bit  of  old  glory. 

C  is  a  pearly  oyster-shell— inside  front. 

D  must  be  a  sort  of  mussel-shell — outside  front. 

E  is  a  twist  of  silver  wire. 

F  is  broken,  but  what  remains  of  it  is  a  bit  of  stag's  horn. 

G  is  painted  black  on  a  piece   of  wood.       (The   bead   after  G   is   a   small 

shell,  and  not  a  clay  bead.     I  don't  know  why  they  did  that.) 
H  is  a  kind  of  a  big  brown  cowie-shell. 
I   is  the  inside   part    of   a  long    shell   ground   down    by   hand.       (It   took 

Tegumai  three  months  to  grind  it  down.) 
J  is  a  fish  hook  in  mother-of-pearl. 
L  is   the   broken    spear   in   silver.      (K   ought   to  follow  J   of  course,  but 

the  necklace  was  broken  once  and  they  mended  it  wrong.) 
K  is  a  thin  slice  of  bone  scratched  and  rubbed  in  black. 

165 


1 66  Just  So  Stories 


M  is  on  a  pale  gray  shell. 

N  is  a  piece  of  what  is  called  porphyry  with  a  nose  scratched  on  it 
(Tegumai  spent  five  months  polishing  this  stone.) 

0  is  a  piece  of  oyster-shell  with  a  hole  in  the  middle. 

P  and  Q  are  missing.  They  were  lost,  a  long  time  ago,  in  a  great 
war,  and  the  tribe  mended  the  necklace  with  the  dried  rattles  of  a 
rattlesnake,  but  no  one  ever  found  P  and  Q.  That  is  how  the 
saying  began,  '  You  must  mind  your  P's.  and  Q's. 

R  is,  of  course,  just  a  shark's  tooth. 

S  is  a  little  silver  snake. 

T  is  the  end  of  a  small  bone,  polished  brown  and  shiny. 

U  is  another  piece  of  oyster-shell. 

W  is  a  twisty  piece  of  mother-of-pearl  that  they  found  inside  a  big 
mother-of-pearl  shell,  and  sawed  off  with  a  wire  dipped  in  sand 
and  water.  It  took  Taffy  a  month  and  a  half  to  polish  it  and  drill 
the  holes. 

X  is  silver  wire  joined  in  the  middle  with  a  raw  garnet.  (Taffy 
found  the  garnet.) 

Y  is  the  carp's  tail  in  ivory. 

'iL  is  a  bell-shaped  piece  of  agate  marked  with  Z-shaped  stripes.  They 
made  the  Z-snake  out  of  one  of  the  stripes  by  picking  out  the  soft 
stone  and  rubbing  in  red  sand  and  bee's-wax.  Just  in  the  mouth  of 
the  bell  you  see  the  clay  bead  repeating  the  Z-letter. 

These  are  all  the  letters. 

The  next  bead  is  a  small  round  greeny  lump  of  copper  ore  ;  the  next 
is  a  lump  of  rough  turquoise  ;  the  next  is  a  rough  gold  nugget  (what  they 
call  water-gold)  ;  the  next  is  a  melon-shaped  clay  bead  (white  with  green 
spots).  Then  come  four  flat  ivory  pieces,  with  dots  on  them  rather  like 
dominoes;  then  come  three  stone  beads,  very  badly  worn;  then  two  soft 
iron  beads  with  rust-holes  at  the  edges  (they  must  have  been  magic,  because 
they  look  very  common)  ;  and  last  is  a  very  very  old  African  bead,  like 
glass — blue,  red,  white,  black,  and  yellow.  Then  comes  the  loop  to  slip  over 
the  big  silver  button  at  the  other  end,  and  that  is  all. 

1  have  copied  the  necklace  very  carefully.  It  weighs  one  pound  seven 
and  a  half  ounces.  The  black  squiggle  behind  is  only  put  in  to  make  the 
beads  and  things  look  better. 


167 


Of  all  the  Tribe  of  Tegumai 

Who  cut  that  figure,  none  remain, — 

On  Merrow  Down  the  cuckoos  cry — 
The  silence  and  the  sun  remain. 

But  as  the  faithful  years  return 

And  hearts  unwounded  sing  again, 

Comes  Taffy  dancing  through  the  fern 
To  lead  the  Surrey  spring  again. 

Her  brows  are  bound  with  bracken-fronds, 
And  golden  elf-locks  fly  above  ; 

Her  eyes  are  bright  as  diamonds 
And  bluer  than  the  skies  above. 

In  mocassins  and  deer-skin  cloak, 
Unfearing,  free  and  fair  she  flits, 

And  lights  her  little  damp-wood  smoke 
To  show  her  Daddy  where  she  flits. 

For  far — oh,  very  far  behind, 
So  far  she  cannot  call  to  him, 

Comes  Tegumai  alone  to  find 

The  daughter  that  was  all  to  him. 


169 


THE    CRAB   THAT    PLAYED    WITH 
THE    SEA 


EFORE  the  High  and 
Far-Off  Times,  O  my 
Best  Beloved,  came  the 
Time  of  the  Very  Be- 
ginnings ;  and  that  was 
in  the  days  when  the 
Eldest  Magician  was 
getting  Things  ready. 
First  he  got  the  Earth 
ready ;  then  he  got  the 
Sea  ready ;  and  then 
he  told  all  the  Animals 
that  they  could  come  out  and  play.  And  the 
Animals  said,  '  O  Eldest  Magician,  what  shall 
we  play  at  ?  '  and  he  said,  '  I  will  show  you.' 
He  took  the  Elephant — All-the-Elephant-there- 
was — and    said,    '  Play   at    being    an    Elephant,' 

171 


172  Just  So  Stories 

and  All -the- Elephant -there -was  played.  He 
took  the  Beaver — All -the- Beaver -there -was  — 
and  said,  '  Play  at  being  a  Beaver,'  and  All-the- 
Beaver-there-was  played.  He  took  the  Cow — 
All  -the  -  Cow  -there  -was  —  and  said,  'Play  at 
being  a  Cow,'  and  All  -  the  -Cow  -there-  was 
played.  He  took  the  Turtle — All- the- Turtle  - 
there-was  —  and  said,  '  Play  at  being  a  Turtle,' 
and  All -the -Turtle -there -was  played.  One  by 
one  he  took  all  the  beasts  and  birds  and  fishes 
and  told  them  what  to  play  at. 

But  towards  evening,  when  people  and  things 
grow  restless  and  tired,  there  came  up  the  Man 
(With  his  own  little  girl-daughter?) — Yes,  with 
his  own  best  beloved  little  girl-daughter  sitting 
upon  his  shoulder,  and  he  said,  'What  is  this 
play,  Eldest  Magician?'  And  the  Eldest 
Magician  said,  '  Ho,  Son  of  Adam,  this  is  the 
play  of  the  Very  Beginning ;  but  you  are  too 
wise  for  this  play.'  And  the  Man  saluted  and 
said,  '  Yes,  I  am  too  wise  for  this  play ;  but  see 
that  you  make  all  the  Animals  obedient  to  me.' 

Now,  while  the  two  were  talking  together, 
Pau  Amma  the  Crab,  who  was  next  in  the 
game,  scuttled  off  sideways  and  stepped  into  the 
sea,  saying  to  himself,  '  I  will  play  my  play  alone 


The  Crab  that  Played      173 

in  the  deep  waters,  and  I  will  never  be  obedient 
to  this  son  of  Adam.'  Nobody  saw  him  go 
away  except  the  little  girl-daughter  where  she 
leaned  on  the  Man's  shoulder.  And  the  play 
went  on  till  there  were  no  more  Animals  left 
without  orders  ;  and  the  Eldest  Magician  wiped 
the  fine  dust  off  his  hands  and  walked  about  the 
world  to  see  how  the  Animals  were  playing. 

He  went  North,  Best  Beloved,  and  he  found 
All  -  the  -  Elephant -there -was  digging  with  his 
tusks  and  stamping  with  his  feet  in  the  nice  new 
clean  earth  that  had  been  made  ready  for  him. 

'  Kun?'  said  All -the- Elephant  -  there -was, 
meaning,  '  Is  this  right  ?  ' 

'  Pay ah  kun,'  said  the  Eldest  Magician, 
meaning,  'That  is  quite  right';  and  he  breathed 
upon  the  great  rocks  and  lumps  of  earth  that 
All-the-Elephant-there-was  had  thrown  up,  and 
they  became  the  great  Himalayan  Mountains, 
and  you  can  look  them  out  on  the  map. 

He  went  East,  and  he  found  All-the-Cow- 
there-was  feeding  in  the  field  that  had  been 
made  ready  for  her,  and  she  licked  her  tongue 
round  a  whole  forest  at  a  time,  and  swallowed  it 
and  sat  down  to  chew  her  cud. 

'  Kun  f  '  said  All-the-Cow-there-was. 


THIS  is  a  picture  of  Pau  Amma  the  Crab  running  away  while  the  Eldest 
Magician  was  talking  to  the  Man  and  his  Little  Girl  Daughter.  The 
Eldest  Magician  is  sitting  on  his  magic  throne,  wrapped  up  in  his  Magic 
Cloud.  The  three  flowers  in  front  of  him  are  the  three  Magic  Flowers. 
On  the  top  of  the  hill  you  can  see  All-the-Elephant-there-was,  and  All- 
the-Cow-there-was,  and  All-the-Turtle-there-was  going  off  to  play  as  the 
Eldest  Magician  told  them.  The  Cow  has  a  hump,  because  she  was 
All-the-Cow-there-was  ;  so  she  had  to  have  all  there  was  for  all  the  cows 
that  were  made  afterwards.  Under  the  hill  there  are  Animals  who  have 
been  taught  the  game  they  were  to  play.  You  can  see  All-the-Tiger- 
there-was  smiling  at  All-the-Bones-there-were,  and  you  can  see  All-the- 
lilk -there  -  was,  and  All -the  -  Parrot- there -was,  and  All-the-Bunnies-there- 
were  on  the  hill.  The  other  Animals  are  on  the  other  side  of  the  hill,  so  I 
haven't  drawn  them.  The  little  house  up  the  hill  is  All-the-House-there- 
was.  The  Eldest  Magician  made  it  to  show  the  Man  how  to  make 
houses  when  he  wanted  to.  The  Snake  round  that  spiky  hill  is  All-the 
Snake-there-was,  and  he  is  talking  to  All-the-Monkey-there-was,  and  the 
Monkey  is  being  rude  to  the  Snake,  and  the  Snake  is  being  rude  to  the 
Monkey.  The  Man  is  very  busy  talking  to  the  Eldest  Magician.  The 
Little  Girl  Daughter  is  looking  at  Pau  Amma  as  he  runs  away.  That 
humpy  thing  in  the  water  in  front  is  Pau  Amma.  He  wasn't  a  common 
Crab  in  those  days.  He  was  a  King  Crab.  That  is  why  he  looks  differ- 
ent. The  thing  that  looks  like  bricks  that  the  Man  is  standing  in,  is  the 
Big  Miz-Maze.  When  the  Man  has  done  talking  with  the  Eldest 
Magician  he  will  walk  in  the  Big  Miz-Maze,  because  he  has  to.  The 
mark  on  the  stone  under  the  Man's  foot  is  a  magic  mark ;  and  down 
underneath  I  have  drawn  the  three  Magic  Flowers  all  mixed  up  with  the 
Magic  Cloud.      All  this  picture  is  Big  Medicine  and  Strong  Magic. 


174 


175 


The  Crab  that  Played      177 

'  Payah  kun,'  said  the  Eldest  Magician;  and 
he  breathed  upon  the  bare  patch  where  she  had 
eaten,  and  upon  the  place  where  she  had  sat 
down,  and  one  became  the  great  Indian  Desert, 
and  the  other  became  the  Desert  of  Sahara,  and 
you  can  look  them  out  on  the  map. 

He  went  West,  and  he  found  All-the-Beaver- 
there-was  making  a  beaver-dam  across  the  mouths 
of  broad  rivers  that  had  been  got  ready  for  him. 

1  Kun  f  '  said  All-the-Beaver-there-was. 

'Payah  kun,'  said  the  Eldest  Magician;  and 
he  breathed  upon  the  fallen  trees  and  the  still 
water,  and  they  became  the  Everglades  in 
Florida,  and  you  may  look  them  out  on  the 
map. 

Then  he  went  South  and  found  All -the - 
Turtle -there -was  scratching  with  his  flippers  in 
the  sand  that  had  been  got  ready  for  him,  and 
the  sand  and  the  rocks  whirled  through  the  air 
and  fell  far  off  into  the  sea. 

'  Kun  f  '  said  All-the-Turtle-there-was. 

'Payah  kun'  said  the  Eldest  Magician;  and 
he  breathed  upon  the  sand  and  the  rocks,  where 
they  had  fallen  in  the  sea,  and  they  became 
the  most  beautiful  islands  of  Borneo,  Celebes, 
Sumatra,  Java,  and  the  rest  of  the  Malay  Archi- 


178  Just  So  Stories 

pelago,  and  you  can  look  them  out  on  the 
map ! 

By  and  by  the  Eldest  Magician  met  the  Man 
on  the  banks  of  the  Perak  river,  and  said,  '  Ho  ! 
Son  of  Adam,  are  all  the  Animals  obedient  to 
you?' 

'  Yes,'  said  the  Man. 

'  Is  all  the  Earth  obedient  to  you  ? ' 

'Yes,'  said  the  Man. 

1  Is  all  the  Sea  obedient  to  you  ?  ' 

'No,'  said  the  Man.  'Once  a  day  and  once 
a  night  the  Sea  runs  up  the  Perak  river  and 
drives  the  sweet-water  back  into  the  forest,  so 
that  my  house  is  made  wet ;  once  a  day  and 
once  a  night  it  runs  down  the  river  and  draws 
all  the  water  after  it,  so  that  there  is  nothing  left 
but  mud,  and  my  canoe  is  upset.  Is  that  the 
play  you  told  it  to  play  ? ' 

'  No,'  said  the  Eldest  Magician.  '  That  is  a 
new  and  a  bad  play.' 

'  Look ! '  said  the  Man,  and  as  he  spoke  the 
great  Sea  came  up  the  mouth  of  the  Perak  river, 
driving  the  river  backwards  till  it  overflowed  all 
the  dark  forests  for  miles  and  miles,  and  flooded 
the  Man's  house. 

'  This  is  wrong.     Launch  your  canoe  and  we 


The  Crab  that  Played      179 

will  find  out  who  is  playing  with  the  Sea,'  said 
the  Eldest  Magician.  They  stepped  into  the 
canoe ;  the  little  girl-daughter  came  with  them ; 
and  the  Man  took  his  kris  —  a  curving,  wavy 
dagger  with  a  blade  like  a  flame,  —  and  they 
pushed  out  on  the  Perak  river.  Then  the  sea 
began  to  run  back  and  back,  and  the  canoe  was 
sucked  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Perak  river, 
past  Selangor,  past  Malacca,  past  Singapore,  out 
and  out  to  the  Island  of  Bingtang,  as  though  it 
had  been  pulled  by  a  string. 

Then  the  Eldest  Magician  stood  up  and 
shouted,  '  Ho !  beasts,  birds,  and  fishes,  that  I 
took  between  my  hands  at  the  Very  Beginning 
and  taught  the  play  that  you  should  play,  which 
one  of  you  is  playing  with  the  Sea?  ' 

Then  all  the  beasts,  birds,  and  fishes  said 
together,  '  Eldest  Magician,  we  play  the  plays 
that  you  taught  us  to  play — we  and  our  children's 
children.     But  not  one  of  us  plays  with  the  Sea.' 

Then  the  Moon  rose  big  and  full  over  the 
water,  and  the  Eldest  Magician  said  to  the 
hunchbacked  old  man  who  sits  in  the  Moon 
spinning  a  fishing-line  with  which  he  hopes  one 
day  to  catch  the  world,  '  Ho !  Fisher  of  the 
Moon,  are  you  playing  with  the  Sea  ? ' 


180  Just  So  Stories 

'  No,'  said  the  Fisherman,  '  I  am  spinning  a 
line  with  which  I  shall  some  day  catch  the 
world  ;  but  I  do  not  play  with  the  Sea.'  And  he 
went  on  spinning  his  line. 

Now  there  is  also  a  Rat  up  in  the  Moon  who 
always  bites  the  old  Fisherman's  line  as  fast  as  it 
is  made,  and  the  Eldest  Magician  said  to  him, 
'  Ho !  Rat  of  the  Moon,  are  you  playing  with 
the  Sea  ? ' 

And  the  Rat  said,  '  I  am  too  busy  biting 
through  the  line  that  this  old  Fisherman  is  spin- 
ning. I  do  not  play  with  the  Sea.'  And  he 
went  on  biting  the  line. 

Then  the  little  girl-daughter  put  up  her  little 
soft  brown  arms  with  the  beautiful  white  shell 
bracelets  and  said,  '  O  Eldest  Magician !  when 
my  father  here  talked  to  you  at  the  Very  Be- 
ginning, and  I  leaned  upon  his  shoulder  while  the 
beasts  were  being  taught  their  plays,  one  beast 
went  away  naughtily  into  the  Sea  before  you  had 
taught  him  his  play.' 

And  the  Eldest  Magician  said,  '  How  wise 
are  little  children  who  see  and  are  silent  !  What 
was  the  beast  like?  ' 

And  the  little  girl-daughter  said,  '  He  was 
round  and  he  was  flat ;  and  his  eyes  grew  upon 


The  Crab  that  Played      181 

stalks ;  and  he  walked  sideways  like  this ; 
and  he  was  covered  with  strong  armour  upon 
his  back.' 

And  the  Eldest  Magician  said,  '  How  wise 
are  little  children  who  speak  truth !  Now  I 
know  where  Pau  Amma  went.  Give  me  the 
paddle  ! ' 

So  he  took  the  paddle ;  but  there  was  no 
need  to  paddle,  for  the  water  flowed  steadily 
past  all  the  islands  till  they  came  to  the  place 
called  Pusat  Tasek — the  Heart  of  the  Sea — where 
the  great  hollow  is  that  leads  down  to  the  heart 
of  the  world,  and  in  that  hollow  grows  the 
Wonderful  Tree,  Pauh  Janggi,  that  bears  the 
magic  twin  nuts.  Then  the  Eldest  Magician 
slid  his  arm  up  to  the  shoulder  through  the  deep 
warm  water,  and  under  the  roots  of  the  Won- 
derful Tree  he  touched  the  broad  back  of  Pau 
Amma  the  Crab.  And  Pau  Amma  settled  down 
at  the  touch,  and  all  the  Sea  rose  up  as  water 
rises  in  a  basin  when  you  put  your  hand  into  it. 

*  Ah  ! '  said  the  Eldest  Magician.  '  Now  I 
know  who  has  been  playing  with  the  Sea  ; '  and 
he  called  out,  '  What  are  you  doing,  Pau 
Amma  ? ' 

And      Pau      Amma,      deep      down     below, 


1 82  Just  So  Stories 

answered,  '  Once  a  day  and  once  a  night  I  go 
out  to  look  for  my  food.  Once  a  day  and  once 
a  night  I  return.     Leave  me  alone.' 

Then  the  Eldest  Magician  said,  '  Listen,  Pau 
Amma.  When  you  go  out  from  your  cave  the 
waters  of  the  Sea  pour  down  into  Pusat  Tasek, 
and  all  the  beaches  of  all  the  islands  are  left 
bare,  and  the  little  fish  die,  and  Raja  Moyang 
Kaban,  the  King  of  the  Elephants,  his  legs 
are  made  muddy.  When  you  come  back  and 
sit  in  Pusat  Tasek,  the  waters  of  the  Sea  rise, 
and  half  the  little  islands  are  drowned,  and  the 
Man's  house  is  flooded,  and  Raja  Abdullah,  the 
King  of  the  Crocodiles,  his  mouth  is  filled  with 
the  salt  water. 

Then  Pau  Amma,  deep  down  below,  laughed 
and  said,  '  I  did  not  know  I  was  so  important. 
Henceforward  I  will  go  out  seven  times  a  day, 
and  the  waters  shall  never  be  still.' 

And  the  Eldest  Magician  said,  '  I  cannot 
make  you  play  the  play  you  were  meant  to  play, 
Pau  Amma,  because  you  escaped  me  at  the  Very 
Beginning ;  but  if  you  are  not  afraid,  come  up 
and  we  will  talk  about  it.' 

'  I  am  not  afraid,'  said  Pau  Amma,  and  he 
rose    to  the    top   of   the   sea   in   the  moonlight. 


The  Crab  that  Played      183 

There  was  nobody  in  the  world  so  big  as  Pau 
Amma — for  he  was  the  King  Crab  of  all  Crabs. 
Not  a  common  Crab,  but  a  King  Crab.  One 
side  of  his  great  shell  touched  the  beach  at 
Sarawak ;  the  other  touched  the  beach  at 
Pahang;  and  he  was  taller  than  the  smoke  of 
three  volcanoes !  As  he  rose  up  through  the 
branches  of  the  Wonderful  Tree  he  tore  off  one 
of  the  great  twin  -  fruits  —  the  magic  double  - 
kernelled  nuts  that  make  people  young,  —  and 
the  little  girl -daughter  saw  it  bobbing  along- 
side the  canoe,  and  pulled  it  in  and  began  to 
pick  out  the  soft  eyes  of  it  with  her  little  golden 
scissors. 

1  Now,'  said  the  Magician,  '  make  a  Magic, 
Pau  Amma,  to  show  that  you  are  really  im- 
portant.' 

Pau  Amma  rolled  his  eyes  and  waved  his 
legs,  but  he  could  only  stir  up  the  Sea,  because, 
though  he  was  a  King  Crab,  he  was  nothing 
more  than  a  Crab,  and  the  Eldest  Magician 
laughed. 

'You  are  not  so  important  after  all,  Pau 
Amma,'  he  said.  '  Now,  let  me  try,'  and  he 
made  a  Magic  with  his  left  hand — with  just  the 
little   finger    of    his    left    hand  —  and  —  lo     and 


THIS  is  the  picture  of  Pau  Amma  the  Crab  rising  out  of  the  sea  as  tall  as 
the  smoke  of  three  volcanoes.  I  haven't  drawn  the  three  volcanoes, 
because  Pau  Amma  was  so  big.  Pau  Amma  is  trying  to  make  a  Magic, 
but  he  is  only  a  silly  old  King  Crab,  and  so  he  can't  do  anything.  You 
can  see  he  is  all  legs  and  claws  and  empty  hollow  shell.  The  canoe  is  the 
canoe  that  the  Man  and  the  Girl  Daughter  and  the  Eldest  Magician  sailed 
from  the  Perak  river  in.  The  sea  is  all  black  and  bobbly,  because  Pau 
Amma  has  just  risen  up  out  of  Pusat  Tasek.  Pusat  Tasek  is  underneath, 
so  I  haven't  drawn  it.  The  Man  is  waving  his  curvy  kris-kniie  at  Pau 
Amma.  The  Little  Girl  Daughter  is  sitting  quietly  in  the  middle  of  the 
canoe.  She  knows  she  is  quite  safe  with  her  Daddy.  The  Eldest 
Magician  is  standing  up  at  the  other  end  of  the  canoe  beginning  to  make 
a  Magic.  He  has  left  his  magic  throne  on  the  beach,  and  he  has  taken  off 
his  clothes  so  as  not  to  get  wet,  and  he  has  left  the  Magic  Cloud  behind 
too,  so  as  not  to  tip  the  boat  over.  The  thing  that  looks  like  another 
little  canoe  outside  the  real  canoe  is  called  an  outrigger.  It  is  a  piece 
of  wood  tied  to  sticks,  and  it  prevents  the  canoe  from  being  tipped  over. 
The  canoe  is  made  out  of  one  piece  of  wood,  and  there  is  a  paddle  at  one 
end  of  it. 


184 


i85 


The  Crab  that  Played      187 

behold,  Best  Beloved,  Pau  Amma's  hard,  blue- 
green-black  shell  fell  off  him  as  a  husk  falls  off 
a  cocoa-nut,  and  Pau  Amma  was  left  all  soft — 
soft  as  the  little  crabs  that  you  sometimes  find 
on  the  beach,  Best  Beloved. 

'  Indeed,  you  are  very  important,'  said  the 
Eldest  Magician.  '  Shall  I  ask  the  Man  here  to 
cut  you  with  kri's?  Shall  I  send  for  Raja 
Moyang  Kaban,  the  King  of  the  Elephants,  to 
pierce  you  with  his  tusks,  or  shall  I  call  Raja 
Abdullah,  the  King  of  the  Crocodiles,  to  bite 
you  ?  ' 

And  Pau  Amma  said,  '  I  am  ashamed  !  Give 
me  back  my  hard  shell  and  let  me  go  back  to 
Pusat  Tasek,  and  I  will  only  stir  out  once  a 
day  and  once  a  night  to  get  my  food.' 

And  the  Eldest  Magician  said,  '  No,  Pau 
Amma,  I  will  not  give  you  back  your  shell,  for 
you  will  grow  bigger  and  prouder  and  stronger, 
and  perhaps  you  will  forget  your  promise,  and 
you  will  play  with  the  Sea  once  more.' 

Then  Pau  Amma  said,  '  What  shall  I  do  ?  I 
am  so  big  that  I  can  only  hide  in  Pusat  Tasek, 
and  if  I  go  anywhere  else,  all  soft  as  I  am  now, 
the  sharks  and  the  dogfish  will  eat  me.  And  if 
I   go   to   Pusat   Tasek,   all    soft   as    I    am    now, 


1 88  Just  So  Stories 

though  I  may  be  safe,  I  can  never  stir  out  to  get 
my  food,  and  so  I  shall  die.'  Then  he  waved 
his  legs  and  lamented. 

'  Listen,  Pau  Anuria,'  said  the  Eldest  Magi- 
cian. '  I  cannot  make  you  play  the  play  you 
were  meant  to  play,  because  you  escaped  me 
at  the  Very  Beginning ;  but  if  you  choose,  I 
can  make  every  stone  and  every  hole  and 
every  bunch  of  weed  in  all  the  seas  a  safe 
Pusat  Tasek  for  you  and  your  children  for 
always.' 

Then  Pau  Amma  said,  '  That  is  good,  but  I 
do  not  choose  yet.  Look !  there  is  that  Man 
who  talked  to  you  at  the  Very  Beginning. 
If  he  had  not  taken  up  your  attention  I  should 
not  have  grown  tired  of  waiting  and  run  away, 
and  all  this  would  never  have  happened.  What 
will  he  do  for  me?' 

And  the  Man  said,  '  If  you  choose,  I  will 
make  a  Magic,  so  that  both  the  deep  water  and 
the  dry  ground  will  be  a  home  for  you  and  your 
children — so  that  you  shall  be  able  to  hide  both 
on  the  land  and  in  the  sea.' 

And  Pau  Amma  said,  '  I  do  not  choose  yet. 
Look !  there  is  that  girl  who  saw  me  running 
away  at  the  Very  Beginning.     If  she  had  spoken 


The  Crab  that  Played      189 

then,  the  Eldest  Magician  would  have  called  me 
back,  and  all  this  would  never  have  happened. 
What  will  she  do  for  me  ?  ' 

And  the  little  girl-daughter  said,  '  This  is  a 
good  nut  that  I  am  eating.  If  you  choose,  I 
will  make  a  Magic  and  I  will  give  you  this  pair 
of  scissors,  very  sharp  and  strong,  so  that  you 
and  your  children  can  eat  cocoa-nuts  like  this 
all  day  long  when  you  come  up  from  the  Sea  to 
the  land ;  or  you  can  dig  a  Pusat  Tasek  for 
yourself  with  the  scissors  that  belong  to  you 
when  there  is  no  stone  or  hole  near  by ;  and 
when  the  earth  is  too  hard,  by  the  help  of 
these  same  scissors  you  can  run  up  a  tree.' 

And  Pau  Amma  said,  '  I  do  not  choose  yet, 
for,  all  soft  as  I  am,  these  gifts  would  not  help 
me.  Give  me  back  my  shell,  O  Eldest  Magician, 
and  then  I  will  play  your  play.' 

And  the  Eldest  Magician  said,  '  I  will  give  it 
back,  Pau  Amma,  for  eleven  months  of  the  year ; 
but  on  the  twelfth  month  of  every  year  it  shall 
grow  soft  again,  to  remind  you  and  all  your 
children  that  I  can  make  magics,  and  to  keep 
you  humble,  Pau  Amma ;  for  I  see  that  if  you 
can  run  both  under  the  water  and  on  land,  you 
will  grow  too  bold  ;    and  if  you  can  climb  trees 


190  Just  So  Stories 

and  crack  nuts  and  dig  holes  with  your  scissors, 
you  will  grow  too  greedy,  Pau  Amma.' 

Then  Pau  Amma  thought  a  little  and  said, 
1 1  have  made  my  choice.  I  will  take  all  the 
gifts.' 

Then  the  Eldest  Magician  made  a  Magic  with 
the  right  hand,  with  all  five  fingers  of  his  right 
hand,  and  lo  and  behold,  Best  Beloved,  Pau 
Amma  grew  smaller  and  smaller  and  smaller,  till 
at  last  there  was  only  a  little  green  crab  swim- 
ming in  the  water  alongside  the  canoe,  crying 
in  a  very  small  voice,  '  Give  me  the  scissors  ! ' 

And  the  girl-daughter  picked  him  up  on  the 
palm  of  her  little  brown  hand,  and  sat  him  in 
the  bottom  of  the  canoe  and  gave  him  her 
scissors,  and  he  waved  them  in  his  little  arms, 
and  opened  them  and  shut  them  and  snapped 
them,  and  said,  '  I  can  eat  nuts.  I  can  crack 
shells.  I  can  dig  holes.  I  can  climb  trees.  I 
can  breathe  in  the  dry  air,  and  I  can  find  a  safe 
Pusat  Tasek  under  every  stone.  I  did  not  know 
I  was  so  important.     Kun  fy   (Is  this  right  ?) 

'  Payah-hm,1  said  the  Eldest  Magician,  and 
he  laughed  and  gave  him  his  blessing  ;  and  little 
Pau  Amma  scuttled  over  the  side  of  the  canoe 
into  the  water ;  and  he  was  so  tiny  that  he  could 


The  Crab  that  Played      191 

have  hidden  under  the  shadow  of  a  dry  leaf  on 
land  or  of  a  dead  shell  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea. 

'  Was  that  well  done  ? '  said  the  Eldest 
Magician. 

'  Yes,'  said  the  Man.  '  But  now  we  must  go 
back  to  Perak,  and  that  is  a  weary  way  to  paddle. 
If  we  had  waited  till  Pau  Amma  had  gone  out 
of  Pusat  Tasek  and  come  home,  the  water  would 
have  carried  us  there  by  itself.' 

'  You  are  lazy,'  said  the  Eldest  Magician. 
'  So  your  children  shall  be  lazy.  They  shall  be 
the  laziest  people  in  the  world.  They  shall  be 
called  the  Malazy  —  the  lazy  people;'  and  he 
held  up  his  finger  to  the  Moon  and  said,  '  O 
Fisherman,  here  is  the  Man  too  lazy  to  row 
home.  Pull  his  canoe  home  with  your  line, 
Fisherman.' 

'  No,'  said  the  Man.  '  If  I  am  to  be  lazy  all 
my  days,  let  the  Sea  work  for  me  twice  a  day 
for  ever.     That  will  save  paddling.' 

And  the  Eldest  Magician  laughed   and   said, 

'  Pay  ah  kun  '  (That  is  right). 

And  the  Rat  of  the  Moon  stopped  biting  the 
line  ;  and  the  Fisherman  let  his  line  down  till  it 
touched  the  Sea,  and  he  pulled  the  whole  deep 
Sea  along,  past  the  Island  of  Bintang,  past  Singa- 


192  Just  So  Stories 

pore,  past  Malacca,  past  Selangor,  till  the  canoe 
whirled  into  the  mouth  of  the  Perak  River  again. 

'  Kun  f  '  said  the  Fisherman  of  the  Moon. 

'  Payah  kirn,'  said  the  Eldest  Magician.  '  See 
now  that  you  pull  the  Sea  twice  a  day  and  twice 
a  night  for  ever,  so  that  the  Malazy  fishermen 
may  be  saved  paddling.  But  be  careful  not  to 
do  it  too  hard,  or  I  shall  make  a  magic  on  you 
as  I  did  to  Pau  Amma.' 

Then  they  all  went  up  the  Perak  River  and 
went  to  bed,  Best  Beloved. 

Now  listen  and  attend  ! 

From  that  day  to  this  the  Moon  has  always 
pulled  the  sea  up  and  down  and  made  what  we 
call  the  tides.  Sometimes  the  Fisher  of  the  Sea 
pulls  a  little  too  hard,  and  then  we  get  spring- 
tides ;  and  sometimes  he  pulls  a  little  too  softly, 
and  then  we  get  what  are  called  neap-tides; 
but  nearly  always  he  is  careful,  because  of  the 
Eldest  Magician. 

And  Pau  Amma  ?  You  can  see  when  you 
go  to  the  beach,  how  all  Pau  Amma's  babies 
make  little  Pusat  Taseks  for  themselves  under 
every  stone  and  bunch  of  weed  on  the  sands ; 
you  can  see  them  waving  their  little  scissors ; 
and  in  some  parts  of  the   world    they   truly   live 


The  Crab  that  Played      193 

on  the  dry  land  and  run  up  the  palm  trees  and 
eat  cocoa-nuts,  exactly  as  the  girl-daughter  pro- 
mised. But  once  a  year  all  Pau  Ammas  must 
shake  off  their  hard  armour  and  be  soft — to 
remind  them  of  what  the  Eldest  Magician  could 
do.  And  so  it  isn't  fair  to  kill  or  hunt  Pau 
Amma's  babies  just  because  old  Pau  Amma  was 
stupidly  rude  a  very  long  time  ago. 

Oh  yes !  And  Pau  Amma's  babies  hate  being 
taken  out  of  their  little  Pusat  Taseks  and  brought 
home  in  pickle-bottles.  That  is  why  they  nip 
you  with  their  scissors,  and  it  serves  you  right ! 


China-going  P.  and  O-'s 

Pass  Pau  Amma's  playground  close, 

And  his  Pusat  Tasek  lies 

Near  the  track  of  most  B.I.'s. 

U.Y.K.  and  N.D.L. 

Know  Pau  Amma's  home  as  well 

As  the  fisher  of  the  Sea  knows 

'Bens,'  M.M.'s,  and  Rubattinos. 

But  (and  this  is  rather  queer) 

A.T.L.'s  can  not  come  here  ; 

O.  and  O.  and  D.O.A. 

Must  go  round  another  way. 

Orient,  Anchor,  Bibby,  Hall, 

Never  go  that  way  at  all. 

U.C.S.  would  have  a  fit 

If  it  found  itself  on  it. 

And  if  '  Beavers  '  took  their  cargoes 

To  Penang  instead  of  Lagos, 

Or  a  fat  Shaw-Savill  bore 

Passengers  to  Singapore, 

Or  a  White  Star  were  to  try  a 

Little  trip  to  Sourabaya, 

Or  a  B.S.A.  went  on 

Past  Natal  to  Cheribon, 

Then  great  Mr.  Lloyds  would  come 

With  a  wire  and  drag  them  home  ! 

You'll  know  what  my  riddle  means 
When  you've  eaten  mangosteens. 

Or  if  you  can't  wait  till  then,  ask  them  to  let  you  have  the 
outside  page  of  the  Times ;  turn  over  to  page  2,  where  it  is 
marked  '  Shipping '  on  the  top  left  hand ;  then  take  the  Atlas 
(and  that  is  the  finest  picture-book  in  the  world)  and  see  how  the 
names  of  the  places  that  the  steamers  go  to  fit  into  the  names  of 
the  places  on  the  map.  Any  steamer-kiddy  ought  to  be  able 
to  do  that  ;    but  if  you  can't  read,  ask  some  one  to  show  it  you. 


195 


THE    CAT   THAT    WALKED    BY 
HIMSELF 

EAR  and  attend  and 
listen ;  for  this 
befell  and  be- 
happened  and 
became  and 
was,  O  my 
Best  Beloved, 
when  the  Tame 
animals  were  wild.  The  Dog  was  wild,  and  the 
Horse  was  wild,  and  the  Cow  was  wild,  and  the 
Sheep  was  wild,  and  the  Pig  was  wild — as  wild 
as  wild  could  be — and  they  walked  in  the  Wet 
Wild  Woods  by  their  wild  lones.  But  the 
wildest  of  all  the  wild  animals  was  the  Cat. 
He  walked  by  himself,  and  all  places  were  alike 
to  him. 

Of   course   the    Man  was  wild  too.     He  was 


197 


198 


Just  So  Stories 


dreadfully  wild.  He  didn't  even  begin  to  be 
tame  till  he  met  the  Woman,  and  she  told  him 
that  she  did  not  like  living  in  his  wild  ways. 
She  picked  out  a  nice  dry  Cave,  instead  of  a 
heap  of  wet  leaves,  to  lie  down  in ;  and  she 
strewed  clean  sand  on  the  floor;  and  she  lit  a 
nice  fire  of  wood  at  the  back  of  the  Cave ;  and 
she  hung  a  dried  wild-horse  skin,  tail-down, 
across  the  opening  of  the  Cave ;  and  she  said, 
'  Wipe  you  feet,  dear,  when  you  come  in,  and 
now  we'll  keep  house.' 

That  night,  Best  Beloved,  they  ate  wild 
sheep  roasted  on  the  hot  stones,  and  flavoured 
with  wild  garlic  and  wild  pepper  ;  and  wild  duck 
stuffed  with  wild  rice  and  wild  fenugreek  and 
wild  coriander ;  and  marrow-bones  of  wild  oxen  ; 
and  wild  cherries,  and  wild  grenadillas.  Then 
the  Man  went  to  sleep  in  front  of  the  fire  ever 
so  happy ;  but  the  Woman  sat  up,  combing  her 
hair.  She  took  the  bone  of  the  shoulder  of 
mutton  —  the  big  fat  blade -bone  —  and  she 
looked  at  the  wonderful  marks  on  it,  and  she 
threw  more  wood  on  the  fire,  and  she  made  a 
Magic.  She  made  the  First  Singing  Magic  in 
the  world. 

Out   in   the   Wet   Wild   Woods   all  the  wild 


The  Cat  that  Walked      199 

animals  gathered  together  where  they  could  see 
the  light  of  the  fire  a  long  way  off,  and  they 
wondered  what  it  meant. 

Then  Wild  Horse  stamped  with  his  wild 
foot  and  said,  '  O  my  Friends  and  O  my 
Enemies,  why  have  the  Man  and  the  Woman 
made  that  great  light  in  that  great  Cave,  and 
what  harm  will  it  do  us  ?  ' 

Wild  Dog  lifted  up  his  wild  nose  and  smelled 
the  smell  of  roast  mutton,  and  said,  '  I  will 
go  up  and  see  and  look,  and  say ;  for  I  think  it 
is  good.     Cat,  come  with  me.' 

'  Nenni ! '  said  the  Cat.  '  I  am  the  Cat  who 
walks  by  himself,  and  all  places  are  alike  to  me. 
I  will  not  come.' 

'  Then  we  can  never  be  friends  again,'  said 
Wild  Dog,  and  he  trotted  off  to  the  Cave. 
But  when  he  had  gone  a  little  way  the  Cat  said 
to  himself,  '  All  places  are  alike  to  me.  Why 
should  I  not  go  too  and  see  and  look  and  come 
away  at  my  own  liking.'  So  he  slipped  after 
Wild  Dog  softly,  very  softly,  and  hid  himself 
where  he  could  hear  everything. 

When  Wild  Dog  reached  the  mouth  of  the 
Cave  he  lifted  up  the  dried  horse-skin  with  his 
nose  and  sniffed  the  beautiful  smell  of  the  roast 


This  is  the  picture  of  the  Cave  where  the  Man  and  the  Woman  lived 
first  of  all.  It  was  really  a  very  nice  Cave,  and  much  warmer  than  it 
looks.  The  Man  had  a  canoe.  It  is  on  the  edge  of  the  river,  being 
soaked  in  the  water  to  make  it  swell  up.  The  tattery-looking  thing  across 
the  river  is  the  Man's  salmon-net  to  catch  salmon  with.  There  are  nice 
clean  stones  leading  up  from  the  river  to  the  mouth  of  the  Cave,  so  that 
the  Man  and  the  Woman  could  go  down  for  water  without  getting  sand 
between  their  toes.  The  things  like  black-beetles  far  down  the  beach  are 
really  trunks  of  dead  trees  that  floated  down  the  river  from  the  Wet  Wild 
Woods  on  the  other  bank.  The  Man  and  the  Woman  used  to  drag  them 
out  and  dry  them  and  cut  them  up  for  firewood.  I  haven't  drawn  the  horse- 
hide  curtain  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cave,  because  the  Woman  has  just  taken 
it  down  to  be  cleaned.  All  those  little  smudges  on  the  sand  between  the 
Cave  and  the  river  are  the  marks  of  the  Woman's,  feet  and  the  Man's  feet. 
The  Man  and  the  Woman  are  both  inside  the  Cave  eating  their 
dinner.  They  went  to  another  cosier  Cave  when  the  Baby  came,  because 
the  Baby  used  to  crawl  down  to  the  river  and  fall  in,  and  the  Dog  had  to 
pull  him  out. 


200 


201 


The  Cat  that  Walked      203 

mutton,  and  the  Woman,  looking  at  the  blade- 
bone,  heard  him,  and  laughed,  and  said,  '  Here 
comes  the  first.  Wild  Thing  out  of  the  Wild 
Woods,  what  do  you  want  ? ' 

Wild  Dog  said,  '  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife  of 
my  Enemy,  what  is  this  that  smells  so  good  in 
the  Wild  Woods?' 

Then  the  Woman  picked  up  a  roasted 
mutton-bone  and  threw  it  to  Wild  Dog,  and 
said,  '  Wild  Thing  out  of  the  Wild  Woods, 
taste  and  try.'  Wild  Dog  gnawed  the  bone, 
and  it  was  more  delicious  than  anything  he  had 
ever  tasted,  and  he  said,  '  O  my  Enemy  and 
Wife  of  my  Enemy,  give  me  another.' 

The  Woman  said,  '  Wild  Thing  out  of  the 
Wild  Woods,  help  my  Man  to  hunt  through 
the  day  and  guard  this  Cave  at  night,  and  I  will 
give  you  as  many  roast  bones  as  you  need.' 

'  Ah ! '  said  the  Cat,  listening.  This  is  a 
very  wise  Woman,  but  she  is  not  so  wise  as 
I  am.' 

Wild  Dog  crawled  into  the  Cave  and  laid 
his  head  on  the  Woman's  lap,  and  said,  '  O 
my  Friend  and  Wife  of  my  Friend,  I  will  help 
your  Man  to  hunt  through  the  day,  and  at 
night  I  will  guard  your  Cave.' 


204  Just  So  Stories 

'  Ah  ! '  said  the  Cat,  listening.  '  That  is  a 
very  foolish  Dog.'  And  he  went  back  through 
the  Wet  Wild  Woods  waving  his  wild  tail, 
and  walking  by  his  wild  lone.  But  he  never 
told  anybody. 

When  the  Man  waked  up  he  said,  '  What  is 
Wild  Dog  doing  here  ? '  And  the  Woman 
said,  '  His  name  is  not  Wild  Dog  any  more,  but 
the  First  Friend,  because  he  will  be  our  friend 
for  always  and  always  and  always.  Take  him 
with  you  when  you  go  hunting.' 

Next  night  the  Woman  cut  great  green 
armfuls  of  fresh  grass  from  the  water-meadows, 
and  dried  it  before  the  fire,  so  that  it  smelt  like 
new-mown  hay,  and  she  sat  at  the  mouth  of  the 
Cave  and  plaited  a  halter  out  of  horse-hide,  and 
she  looked  at  the  shoulder  of  mutton -bone — 
at  the  big  broad  blade -bone — and  she  made  a 
Magic.  She  made  the  Second  Singing  Magic 
in  the  world. 

Out  in  the  Wild  Woods  all  the  wild  animals 
wondered  what  had  happened  to  Wild  Dog,  and 
at  last  Wild  Horse  stamped  with  his  foot  and 
said,  '  I  will  go  and  see  and  say  why  Wild 
Dog  has  not  returned.     Cat,  come  with  me.' 

'  Nenni ! '   said  the  Cat.     '  I  am  the  Cat  who 


The  Cat  that  Walked     205 

walks  by  himself,  and  all  places  are  alike  to  me. 
I  will  not  come.'  But  all  the  same  he  followed 
Wild  Horse  softly,  very  softly,  and  hid  himself 
where  he  could  hear  everything. 

When  the  Woman  heard  Wild  Horse  tripping 
and  stumbling  on  his  long  mane,  she  laughed 
and  said,  '  Here  comes  the  second.  Wild  Thing 
out  of  the  Wild  Woods  what  do  you  want  ?  ' 

Wild  Horse  said,  '  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife 
of  my  Enemy,  where  is  Wild  Dog  ? ' 

The  Woman  laughed,  and  picked  up  the 
blade-bone  and  looked  at  it,  and  said,  '  Wild 
Thing  out  of  the  Wild  Woods,  you  did  not  come 
here  for  Wild  Dog,  but  for  the  sake  of  this  good 
grass.' 

And  Wild  Horse,  tripping  and  stumbling  on 
his  long  mane,  said,  '  That  is  true ;  give  it  me 
to  eat.' 

The  Woman  said,  '  Wild  Thing  out  of  the 
Wild  Woods,  bend  your  wild  head  and  wear 
what  I  give  you,  and  you  shall  eat  the  wonderful 
grass  three  times  a  day.' 

'Ah,'  said  the  Cat,  listening,  '  this  is  a  clever 
Woman,  but  she  is  not  so  clever  as  I  am.' 

Wild  Horse  bent  his  wild  head,  and  the 
Woman   slipped  the  plaited  hide  halter  over  it, 


THIS  is  the  picture  of  the  Cat  that  Walked  by  Himself,  walking  by  his 
wild  lone  through  the  Wet  Wild  Woods  and  waving  his  wild  tail.  There 
is  nothing  else  in  the  picture  except  some  toadstools.  They  had  to  grow 
there  because  the  woods  were  so  wet.  The  lumpy  thing  on  the  low 
branch  isn't  a  bird.  It  is  moss  that  grew  there  because  the  Wild  Woods 
were  so  wet. 

Underneath  the  truly  picture  is  a  picture  of  the  cozy  Cave  that  the 
Man  and  the  Woman  went  to  after  the  Baby  came.  It  was  their  summer 
Cave,  and  they  planted  wheat  in  front  of  it.  The  Man  is  riding  on  the 
Horse  to  find  the  Cow  and  bring  her  back  to  the  Cave  to  be  milked.  He 
is  holding  up  his  hand  to  call  the  Dog,  who  has  swum  across  to  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  looking  for  rabbits. 


2o6 


207 


The  Cat  that  Walked      209 

and  Wild  Horse  breathed  on  the  Woman's  feet 
and  said,  '  O  my  Mistress,  and  Wife  of  my 
Master,  I  will  be  your  servant  for  the  sake  of  the 
wonderful  grass.' 

'Ah,'  said  the  Cat,  listening,  'that  is  a  very 
foolish  Horse.'  And  he  went  back  through  the 
Wet  Wild  Woods,  waving  his  wild  tail  and  walk- 
ing by  his  wild  lone.     But  he  never  told  anybody. 

When  the  Man  and  the  Dog  came  back  from 
hunting,  the  Man  said,  '  What  is  Wild  Horse 
doing  here  ? '  And  the  Woman  said,  '  His 
name  is  not  Wild  Horse  any  more,  but  the  First 
Servant,  because  he  will  carry  us  from  place  to 
place  for  always  and  always  and  always.  Ride 
on  his  back  when  you  go  hunting.' 

Next  day,  holding  her  wild  head  high  that 
her  wild  horns  should  not  catch  in  the  wild 
trees,  Wild  Cow  came  up  to  the  Cave,  and  the 
Cat  followed,  and  hid  himself  just  the  same  as 
before ;  and  everything  happened  just  the  same 
as  before  ;  and  the  Cat  said  the  same  things  as 
before  ,  and  when  Wild  Cow  had  promised  to 
give  her  milk  to  the  Woman  every  day  in  ex- 
change for  the  wonderful  grass,  the  Cat  went 
back  through  the  Wet  Wild  Woods  waving 
his   wild   tail    and   walking    by    his    wild    lone, 


210  Just  So  Stories 

just  the  same  as  before.  But  he  never  told 
anybody.  And  when  the  Man  and  the  Horse 
and  the  Dog  came  home  from  hunting  and 
asked  the  same  questions  same  as  before,  the 
Woman  said,  '  Her  name  is  not  Wild  Cow 
any  more,  but  the  Giver  of  Good  Food.  She 
will  give  us  the  warm  white  milk  for  always  and 
always  and  always,  and  I  will  take  care  of  her 
while  you  and  the  First  Friend  and  the  First 
Servant  go  hunting.' 

Next  day  the  Cat  waited  to  see  if  any  other 
Wild  thing  would  go  up  to  the  Cave,  but  no 
one  moved  in  the  Wet  Wild  Woods,  so  the  Cat 
walked  there  by  himself ;  and  he  saw  the  Woman 
milking  the  Cow,  and  he  saw  the  light  of  the 
fire  in  the  Cave,  and  he  smelt  the  smell  of  the 
warm  white  milk. 

Cat  said,  '  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife  of  my 
Enemy,  where  did  Wild  Cow  go  ?  ' 

The  Woman  laughed  and  said,  'Wild  Thing 
out  of  the  Wild  Woods,  go  back  to  the  Woods 
again,  for  I  have  braided  up  my  hair,  and  I  have 
put  away  the  magic  blade-bone,  and  we  have  no 
more  need  of  either  friends  or  servants  in  our 
Cave.' 

Cat  said,    '  I  am  not  a  friend,  and  I  am  not 


The  Cat  that  Walked      211 

a  servant.  I  am  the  Cat  who  walks  by  himself, 
and  I  wish  to  come  into  your  cave.' 

Woman  said,  '  Then  why  did  you  not  come 
with  First  Friend  on  the  first  night  ?  ' 

Cat  grew  very  angry  and  said,  '  Has  Wild 
Dog  told  tales  of  me  ? ' 

Then  the  Woman  laughed  and  said,  '  You 
are  the  Cat  who  walks  by  himself,  and  all  places 
are  alike  to  you.  Your  are  neither  a  friend  nor 
a  servant.  You  have  said  it  yourself.  Go  away 
and  walk  by  yourself  in  all  places  alike.' 

Then  Cat  pretended  to  be  sorry  and  said, 
'  Must  I  never  come  into  the  Cave  ? '  Must  I 
never  sit  by  the  warm  fire?  Must  I  never 
drink  the  warm  white  milk  ?  You  are  very 
wise  and  very  beautiful.  You  should  not  be 
cruel  even  to  a  Cat.' 

Woman  said,  '  I  knew  I  was  wise,  but  I  did 
not  know  I  was  beautiful.  So  I  will  make  a 
bargain  with  you.  If  ever  I  say  one  word  in 
your  praise  you  may  come  into  the  Cave.' 

'  And  if  you  say  two  words  in  my  praise  ?  ' 
said  the  Cat. 

'  I  never  shall,'  said  the  Woman,  '  but  if  I 
say  two  words  in  your  praise,  you  may  sit  by 
the  fire  in  the  Cave.' 


212  Just  So  Stories 

'  And  if  you  say  three  words  ? '  said  the  Cat. 

1 1  never  shall,'  said  the  Woman,  '  but  if  I 
say  three  words  in  your  praise,  you  may  drink 
the  warm  white  milk  three  times  a  day  for 
always  and  always  and  always.' 

Then  the  Cat  arched  his  back  and  said, 
'  Now  let  the  Curtain  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cave, 
and  the  Fire  at  the  back  of  the  Cave,  and  the 
Milk-pots  that  stand  beside  the  Fire,  remember 
what  my  Enemy  and  the  Wife  of  my  Enemy  has 
said.'  And  he  went  away  through  the  Wet 
Wild  Woods  waving  his  wild  tail  and  walking 
by  his  wild  lone. 

That  night  when  the  Man  and  the  Horse 
and  the  Dog  came  home  from  hunting,  the 
Woman  did  not  tell  them  of  the  bargain  that 
she  had  made  with  the  Cat,  because  she  was 
afraid  that  they  might  not  like  it. 

Cat  went  far  and  far  away  and  hid  himself  in 
the  Wet  Wild  Woods  by  his  wild  lone  for  a 
long  time  till  the  Woman  forgot  all  about  him. 
Only  the  Bat — the  little  upside-down  Bat — that 
hung  inside  the  Cave,  knew  where  Cat  hid;  and 
every  evening  Bat  would  fly  to  Cat  with  news 
of  what  was  happening. 

One   evening   Bat    said,    '  There    is    a    Baby 


The  Cat  that  Walked      213 

in  the  Cave.  He  is  new  and  pink  and  fat  and 
small,  and  the  Woman  is  very  fond  of  him.' 

'  Ah,'  said  the  Cat,  listening,  '  but  what  is  the 
Baby  fond  of  ?  ' 

'  He  is  fond  of  things  that  are  soft  and  tickle,' 
said  the  Bat.  '  He  is  fond  of  warm  things  to 
hold  in  his  arms  when  he  goes  to  sleep.  He  is 
fond  of  being  played  with.  He  is  fond  of  all 
those  things.' 

'Ah,'  said  the  Cat,  listening,  'then  my 
time  has  come.' 

Next  night  Cat  walked  through  the  Wet 
Wild  Woods  and  hid  very  near  the  Cave  till 
morning-time,  and  Man  and  Dog  and  Horse 
went  hunting.  The  Woman  was  busy  cooking 
that  morning,  and  the  Baby  cried  and  inter- 
rupted. So  she  carried  him  outside  the  Cave 
and  gave  him  a  handful  of  pebbles  to  play  with. 
But  still  the  Baby  cried. 

Then  the  Cat  put  out  his  paddy  paw  and 
patted  the  Baby  on  the  cheek,  and  it  cooed ; 
and  the  Cat  rubbed  against  its  fat  knees  and 
tickled  it  under  its  fat  chin  with  his  tail.  And 
the  Baby  laughed ;  and  ths  Woman  heard  him 
and  smiled. 

Then   the  Bat — the   little   upside-down  Bat — 


214  Just  So  Stories 

that  hung  in  the  mouth  of  the  Cave  said,  '  O  my 
Hostess  and  Wife  of  my  Host  and  Mother  of  my 
Host's  Son,  a  Wild  Thing  from  the  Wild  Woods 
is  most  beautifully  playing  with  your  Baby.' 

'A  blessing  on  that  Wild  Thing  whoever  he 
may  be,'  said  the  Woman,  straightening  her 
back,  '  for  I  was  a  busy  woman  this  morning 
and  he  has  done  me  a  service.' 

The  very  minute  and  second,  Best  Beloved, 
the  dried  horse-skin  Curtain  that  was  stretched 
tail-down  at  the  mouth  of  the  Cave  fell  down — 
woosh ! — because  it  remembered  the  bargain  she 
had  made  with  the  Cat,  and  when  the  Woman 
went  to  pick  it  up — lo  and  behold ! — the  Cat 
was  sitting  quite  comfy  inside  the  Cave. 

'  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife  of  my  Enemy  and 
Mother  of  my  Enemy,'  said  the  Cat,  'it  is  I :  for 
you  have  spoken  a  word  in  my  praise,  and  now 
I  can  sit  within  the  Cave  for  always  and  always 
and  always.  But  still  I  am  the  Cat  who  walks 
by  himself,  and  all  places  are  alike  to  me.' 

The  Woman  was  very  angry,  and  shut  her 
lips  tight  and  took  up  her  spinning-wheel  and 
began  to  spin. 

But  the  Baby  cried  because  the  Cat  had  gone 
away,  and  the  Woman  could  not  hush  it,  for  it 


The  Cat  that  Walked     215 

struggled  and  kicked  and  grew  black  in  the 
face. 

'  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife  of  my  Enemy  and 
Mother  of  my  Enemy,'  said  the  Cat,  'take  a 
strand  of  the  wire  that  you  are  spinning  and 
tie  it  to  your  spinning-whorl  and  drag  it  along 
the  floor,  and  I  will  show  you  a  magic  that  shall 
make  your  Baby  laugh  as  loudly  as  he  is  now 
crying.' 

'  I  will  do  so,'  said  the  Woman,  '  because  I 
am  at  my  wits'  end  ;  but  I  will  not  thank  you 
for  it.' 

She  tied  the  thread  to  the  little  clay  spindle- 
whorl  and  drew  it  across  the  floor,  and  the  Cat 
ran  after  it  and  patted  it  with  his  paws  and 
rolled  head  over  heels,  and  tossed  it  backward 
over  his  shoulder  and  chased  it  between  his 
hind-legs  and  pretended  to  lose  it,  and  pounced 
down  upon  it  again,  till  the  Baby  laughed  as 
loudly  as  it  had  been  crying,  and  scrambled 
after  the  Cat  and  frolicked  all  over  the  Cave  till 
it  grew  tired  and  settled  down  to  sleep  with  the 
Cat  in  its  arms. 

'Now,'  said  the  Cat,  '  I  will  sing  the  Baby  a 
song  that  shall  keep  him  asleep  for  an  hour.' 
And  he   began  to  purr,  loud  and  low,  low  and 


216  Just  So  Stories 

loud,  till  the  Baby  fell  fast  asleep.  The  Woman 
smiled  as  she  looked  down  upon  the  two  of 
them  and  said,  '  That  was  wonderfully  done. 
No  question  but  you  are  very  clever,  O  Cat.' 

That  very  minute  and  second,  Best  Beloved, 
the  smoke  of  the  fire  at  the  back  of  the  Cave 
came  down  in  clouds  from  the  roof — puff! — 
because  it  remembered  the  bargain  she  had 
made  with  the  Cat,  and  when  it  had  cleared 
away — lo  and  behold! — the  Cat  was  sitting 
quite  comfy  close  to  the  fire. 

'  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife  of  my  Enemy  and 
Mother  of  My  Enemy,'  said  the  Cat,  '  it  is  I,  for 
you  have  spoken  a  second  word  in  my  praise, 
and  now  I  can  sit  by  the  warm  fire  at  the  back 
of  the  Cave  for  always  and  always  and  always. 
But  still  I  am  the  Cat  who  walks  by  himself,  and 
all  places  are  alike  to  me.' 

Then  the  Woman  was  very  very  angry,  and 
let  down  her  hair  and  put  more  wood  on  the 
fire  and  brought  out  the  broad  blade-bone  of 
the  shoulder  of  mutton  and  began  to  make  a 
Magic  that  should  prevent  her  from  saying  a 
third  word  in  praise  of  the  Cat.  It  was  not  a 
Singing  Magic,  Best  Beloved,  it  was  a  Still 
Magic  ;    and    by   and   by  the  Cave  grew  so  still 


The  Cat  that  Walked      217 

that  a  little  wee-wee  mouse  crept  out  of  a  corner 
and  ran  across  the  floor. 

'  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife  of  my  Enemy  and 
Mother  'of  my  Enemy,'  said  the  Cat,  '  is  that 
little  mouse  part  of  your  magic  ? ' 

'  Ouh  !  Chee  !  No  indeed  ! '  said  the  Woman, 
and  she  dropped  the  blade-bone  and  jumped 
upon  the  footstool  in  front  of  the  fire  and 
braided  up  her  hair  very  quick  for  fear  that  the 
mouse  should  run  up  it. 

'  Ah,'  said  the  Cat,  watching,  '  then  the 
mouse  will  do  me  no  harm  if  I  eat  it  ? ' 

'No,'  said  the  Woman,  braiding  up  her  hair, 
'  eat  it  quickly  and  I  will  ever  be  grateful  to 
you.' 

Cat  made  one  jump  and  caught  the  little 
mouse,  and  the  Woman  said,  '  A  hundred  thanks. 
Even  the  First  Friend  is  not  quick  enough  to 
catch  little  mice  as  you  have  done.  You  must 
be  very  wise.' 

That  very  moment  and  second,  O  Best 
Beloved,  the  Milk -pot  that  stood  by  the  fire 
cracked  in  two  pieces — ffft — because  it  remem- 
bered the  bargain  she  had  made  with  the  Cat, 
and  when  the  Woman  jumped  down  from  the 
footstool — lo  and  behold  ! — the  Cat  was  lapping 


218  Just  So  Stories 

up  the  warm  white  milk  that  lay  in  one  of  the 
broken  pieces. 

'  O  my  Enemy  and  Wife  of  my  Enemy  and 
Mother  of  my  Enemy,'  said  the  Cat,  '  it  is  I ;  for 
you  have  spoken  three  words  in  my  praise,  and 
now  I  can  drink  the  warm  white  milk  three 
times  a  day  for  always  and  always  and  always. 
But  still  I  am  the  Cat  who  walks  by  himself,  and 
all  places  are  alike  to  me.' 

Then  the  Woman  laughed  and  set  the  Cat 
a  bowl  of  the  warm  white  milk  and  said,  '  O 
Cat,  you  are  as  clever  as  a  man,  but  remember 
that  your  bargain  was  not  made  with  the  Man 
or  the  Dog,  and  I  do  not  know  what  they  will 
do  when  they  come  home.' 

'  What  is  that  to  me  ? '  said  the  Cat.  '  If  I 
have  my  place  in  the  Cave  by  the  fire  and  my 
warm  white  milk  three  times  a  day  I  do  not 
care  what  the  Man  or  the  Dog  can  do.' 

That  evening  when  the  Man  and  the  Dog 
came  into  the  Cave,  the  Woman  told  them  all  the 
story  of  the  bargain  while  the  Cat  sat  by  the 
fire  and  smiled.  Then  the  Man  said,  '  Yes,  but 
he  has  not  made  a  bargain  with  me  or  with  all 
proper  Men  after  me.'  Then  he  took  off  his 
two    leather    boots    and    he    took    up     his    little 


The  Cat  that  Walked     219 

stone  axe  (that  makes  three)  and  he  fetched 
a  piece  of  wood  and  a  hatchet  (that  is  five 
altogether),  and  he  set  them  out  in  a  row  and 
he  said,  '  Now  we  will  make  our  bargain.  If 
you  do  not  catch  mice  when  you  are  in  the  Cave 
for  always  and  always  and  always,  I  will  throw 
these  five  things  at  you  whenever  I  see  you,  and 
so  shall  all  proper  Men  do  after  me.' 

'Ah,'  said  the  Woman,  listening,  'this  is  a 
very  clever  Cat,  but  he  is  not  so  clever  as  my 
Man.' 

The  Cat  counted  the  five  things  (and  they 
looked  very  knobby)  and  he  said,  '  I  will  catch 
mice  when  I  am  in  the  Cave  for  always  and 
always  and  always ;  but  still  I  am  the  Cat  who 
walks  by  himself,  and  all  places  are  alike  to  me.' 

'Not  when  I  am  near,'  said  the  Man.  'If 
you  had  not  said  that  last  I  would  have  put  all 
these  things  away  for  always  and  always  and 
always ;  but  I  am  now  going  to  throw  my  two 
boots  and  my  little  stone  axe  (that  makes  three) 
at  you  whenever  I  meet  you.  And  so  shall  all 
proper  Men  do  after  me  ! ' 

Then  the  Dog  said,  '  Wait  a  minute.  He  has 
not  made  a  bargain  with  me  or  with  all  proper 
Dogs    after    me.'     And    he    showed    his    teeth 


220  Just  So  Stories 

and  said,  '  If  you  are  not  kind  to  the  Baby  while 
I  am  in  the  Cave  for  always  and  always  and 
always,  I  will  hunt  you  till  I  catch  you,  and 
when  I  catch  you  I  will  bite  you.  And  so  shall 
all  proper  Dogs  do  after  me.' 

'  Ah,'  said  the  Woman,  listening,  '  this  is  a 
very  clever  Cat,  but  he  is  not  so  clever  as  the 
Dog.' 

Cat  counted  the  Dog's  teeth  (and  they  looked 
very  pointed)  and  he  said,  '  I  will  be  kind  to 
the  Baby  while  I  am  in  the  Cave,  as  long  as 
he  does  not  pull  my  tail  too  hard,  for  always 
and  always  and  always.  But  still  I  am  the  Cat 
that  walks  by  himself,  and  all  places  are  alike 
to  me.' 

'  Not  when  I  am  near,'  said  the  Dog.  '  If 
you  had  not  said  that  last  I  would  have  shut  my 
mouth  for  always  and  always  and  always ;  but 
now  I  am  going  to  hunt  you  up  a  tree  whenever 
I  meet  you.  And  so  shall  all  proper  Dogs  do 
after  me.' 

Then  the  Man  threw  his  two  boots  and  his 
little  stone  axe  (that  makes  three)  at  the  Cat, 
and  the  Cat  ran  out  of  the  Cave  and  the  Dog 
chased  him  up  a  tree ;  and  from  that  day  to 
this,  Best  Beloved,  three  proper  Men  out  of  five 


The  Cat  that  Walked     221 

will  always  throw  things  at  a  Cat  whenever  they 
meet  him,  and  all  proper  Dogs  will  chase  him  up  a 
tree.  But  the  Cat  keeps  his  side  of  the  bargain 
too.  He  will  kill  mice  and  he  will  be  kind  to 
Babies  when  he  is  in  the  house,  just  as  long  as 
they  do  not  pull  his  tail  too  hard.  But  when 
he  has  done  that,  and  between  times,  and  when 
the  moon  gets  up  and  night  comes,  he  is  the 
Cat  that  walks  by  himself,  and  all  places  are  alike 
to  him.  Then  he  goes  out  to  the  Wet  Wild 
Woods  or  up  the  Wet  Wild  Trees  or  on  the  Wet 
Wild  Roofs,  waving  his  wild  tail  and  walking  by 
his  wild  lone. 


PUSSY  can  sit  by  the  fire  and  sing, 

Pussy  can  climb  a  tree, 
Or  play  with  a  silly  old  cork  and  string 

To  'muse  herself,  not  me. 
But  I  like  Binkie  my  dog,  because 

He  knows  how  to  behave  ; 
So,  Binkie's  the  same  as  the  First  Friend  was, 

And  I  am  the  Man  in  the  Cave. 

Pussy  will  play  man-Friday  till 

It's  time  to  wet  her  paw 
And  make  her  walk  on  the  window-sill 

(For  the  footprint  Crusoe  saw)  ; 
Then  she  flufHes  her  tail  and  mews, 

And  scratches  and  won't  attend. 
But  Binkie  will  play  whatever  I  choose, 

And  he  is  my  true  First  Friend. 

Pussy  will  rub  my  knees  with  her  head 

Pretending  she  loves  me  hard  ; 
But  the  very  minute  I  go  to  my  bed 

Pussy  runs  out  in  the  yard, 
And  there  she  stays  till  the  morning-light ; 

So  I  know  it  is  only  pretend  ; 
But  "Binkie,  he  snores  at  my  feet  all  night, 

And  he  is  my  Firstest  Friend  ! 


223 


THE   BUTTERFLY  THAT  STAMPED 


HIS,  O  my  Best  Beloved, 
is  a  story — a  new  and 
a  wonderful  story  —  a 
story  quite  different 
from  the  other  stories 
—  a  story  about  The 
Most  Wise  Sovereign 
Suleiman  -  bin  -  Daoud 
— Solomon  the  Son  of 
David. 

There  are  three 
hundred  and  fifty-five  stories  about  Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud ;  but  this  not  one  of  them.  It  is 
not  the  story  of  the  Lapwing  who  found  the 
Water ;  or  the  Hoopoe  who  shaded  Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud  from  the  heat.  It  is  not  the  story 
of  the  Glass  Pavement,  or  the  Ruby  with  the 
Crooked  Hole,  or  the  Gold  Bars  of  Balkis.  It 
is  the  story  of  the  Butterfly  that  Stamped. 

225 


226  Just  So  Stories 

Now  attend  all  over  again  and  listen  ! 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud  was  wise.  He  under- 
stood what  the  beasts  said,  what  the  birds  said, 
what  the  fishes  said,  and  what  the  insects  said. 
He  understood  what  the  rocks  said  deep  under 
the  earth  when  they  bowed  in  towards  each 
other  and  groaned  ;  and  he  understood  what  the 
trees  said  when  they  rustled  in  the  middle  of  the 
morning.  He  understood  everything,  from  the 
bishop  on  the  bench  to  the  hyssop  on  the  wall, 
and  Balkis,  his  Head  Queen,  the  Most  Beautiful 
Queen  Balkis,  was  nearly  as  wise  as  he  was. 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud  was  strong.  Upon  the 
third  finger  of  the  right  hand  he  wore  a  ring. 
When  he  turned  it  once,  Afrits  and  Djinns  came 
out  of  the  earth  to  do  whatever  he  told  them. 
When  he  turned  it  twice,  Fairies  came  down 
from  the  sky  to  do  whatever  he  told  them ;  and 
when  he  turned  it  three  times,  the  very  great 
angel  Azrael  of  the  Sword  came  dressed  as  a 
water-carrier,  and  told  him  the  news  of  the 
three  worlds, — Above — Below — and  Here. 

And  yet  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  was  not  proud. 
He  very  seldom  showed  off,  and  when  he  did 
he  was  sorry  for  it.  Once  he  tried  to  feed  all 
the    animals   in    all   the   world    in    one    day,  but 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  227 

when  the  food  was  ready  an  Animal  came  out  of 
the  deep  sea  and  ate  it  up  in  three  mouthfuls. 
Suleiman  -  bin  -  Daoud  was  very  surprised  and 
said,  '  O  Animal,  who  are  you  ? '  And  the 
Animal  said,  '  O  King,  live  for  ever !  I  am  the 
smallest  of  thirty  thousand  brothers,  and  our 
home  is  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  We  heard 
that  you  were  going  to  feed  all  the  animals  in 
all  the  world,  and  my  brothers  sent  me  to  ask 
when  dinner  would  be  ready.'  Suleiman-bin- 
Daoud  was  more  surprised  than  ever  and  said, 
'  O  Animal,  you  have  eaten  all  the  dinner  that  I 
made  ready  for  all  the  animals  in  the  world.' 
And  the  Animal  said,  '  O  King,  live  for  ever,  but 
do  you  really  call  that  a  dinner  ?  Where  I  come 
from  we  each  eat  twice  as  much  as  that  between 
meals.'  Then  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  fell  flat  on 
his  face  and  said,  '  O  Animal  !  I  gave  that 
dinner  to  show  what  a  great  and  rich  king  I  was, 
and  not  because  I  really  wanted  to  be  kind  to 
the  animals.  Now  I  am  ashamed,  and  it  serves 
me  right.'  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  was  a  really 
truly  wise  man,  Best  Beloved.  After  that  he 
never  forgot  that  it  was  silly  to  show  off ;  and 
now  the  real  story  part  of  my  story  begins. 

He  married  ever  so  many  wifes.     He  married 


THIS  is  the  picture  of  the  Animal  that  came  out  of  the  sea  and  ate  up  all 
the  food  that  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  had  made  ready  for  all  the  animals  in 
all  the  world.  He  was  really  quite  a  nice  Animal,  and  his  Mummy  was 
very  fond  of  him  and  of  his  twenty-nine  thousand  nine  hundred  and  ninety- 
nine  other  brothers  that  lived  at  the  bottom  of  the  sea.  You  know  that 
he  was  the  smallest  of  them  all,  and  so  his  name  was  Small  Porgies. 
He  ate  up  all  those  boxes  and  packets  and  bales  and  things  that  had  been 
got  ready  for  all  the  animals,  without  ever  once  taking  off  the  lids  or 
untying  the  strings,  and  it  did  not  hurt  him  at  all.  The  sticky-up  masts 
behind  the  boxes  of  food  belong  to  Suleiman-bin-Daoud's  ships.  They 
were  busy  bringing  more  food  when  Small  Porgies  came  ashore.  He  did 
not  eat  the  ships.  They  stopped  unloading  the  foods  and  instantly  sailed 
away  to  sea  till  Small  Porgies  had  quite  finished  eating.  You  can  see 
some  of  the  ships  beginning  to  sail  away  by  Small  Porgies'  shoulder.  I 
have  not  drawn  Suleiman-bin-Daoud,  but  he  is  just  outside  the  picture, 
very  much  astonished.  The  bundle  hanging  from  the  mast  of  the  ship  in 
the  corner  is  really  a  package  of  wet  dates  for  parrots  to  eat.  I  don't 
know    the    names    of   the    ships.     That    is    all    there    is    in    that   picture. 


228 


229 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  231 

nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  wives,  besides  the 
Most  Beautiful  Balkis ;  and  they  all  lived  in  a 
great  golden  palace  in  the  middle  of  a  lovely 
garden  with  fountains.  He  didn't  really  want 
nine-hundred  and  ninety-nine  wives,  but  in  those 
days  everybody  married  ever  so  many  wives,  and 
of  course  the  King  had  to  marry  ever  so  many 
more  just  to  show  that  he  was  the  King. 

Some  of  the  wives  were  nice,  but  some  were 
simply  horrid,  and  the  horrid  ones  quarrelled 
with  the  nice  ones  and  made  them  horrid  too, 
and  then  they  would  all  quarrel  with  Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud,  and  that  was  horrid  for  him.  But 
Balkis  the  Most  Beautiful  never  quarrelled 
with  Suleiman-bin-Daoud.  She  loved  him  too 
much.  She  sat  in  her  rooms  in  the  Golden 
Palace,  or  walked  in  the  Palace  garden,  and  was 
truly  sorry  for  him. 

Of  course  if  he  had  chosen  to  turn  his  ring 
on  his  finger  and  call  up  the  Djinns  and  the 
Afrits  they  would  have  magicked  all  those  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  quarrelsome  wives  into 
white  mules  of  the  desert  or  greyhounds  or 
pomegranate  seeds;  but  Suleiman-bin-Daoud 
thought  that  that  would  be  showing  off.  So, 
when  they  quarrelled  too  much,  he  only  walked 


232  Just  So  Stories 

by  himself  in  one  part  of  the  beautiful  Palace 
gardens  and  wished  he  had  never  been  born. 

One  day,  when  they  had  quarrelled  for  three 
weeks — all  nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  wives 
together  —  Suleiman  -  bin  -  Daoud  went  out  for 
peace  and  quiet  as  usual ;  and  among  the  orange 
trees  he  met  Balkis  the  Most  Beautiful,  very 
sorrowful  because  Suleiman -bin -Daoud  was  so 
worried.  And  she  said  to  him,  '  O  my  Lord 
and  Light  of  my  Eyes,  turn  the  ring  upon  your 
finger  and  show  these  Queens  of  Egypt  and 
Mesopotamia  and  Persia  and  China  that  you  are 
the  great  and  terrible  King.'  But  Suleiman-bin- 
Daoud  shook  his  head  and  said,  '  O  my  Lady 
and  Delight  of  my  Life,  remember  the  Animal 
that  came  out  of  the  sea  and  made  me  ashamed 
before  all  the  animals  in  all  the  world  because 
I  showed  off.  Now,  if  I  showed  off  before  these 
Queens  of  Persia  and  Egypt  and  Abyssinia  and 
China,  merely  because  they  worry  me,  I  might 
be  made  even  more  ashamed  than  I  have  been.' 

And  Balkis  the  Most  Beautiful  said,  '  O  my 
Lord  and  Treasure  of  my  Soul,  what  will  you 
do?' 

And  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  said,  '  O  my  Lady 
and    Content   of    my   Heart,   I  shall  continue  to 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  233 

endure  my  fate  at  the  hands  of  these  nine  hun- 
dred and  ninety-nine  Queens  who  vex  me  with 
their  continual  quarrelling.' 

So  he  went  on  between  the  lilies  and  the 
loquats  and  the  roses  and  the  cannas  and  the 
heavy-scented  ginger-plants  that  grew  in  the 
garden,  till  he  came  to  the  great  camphor-tree 
that  was  called  the  Camphor  Tree  of  Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud.  But  Balkis  hid  among  the  tall 
irises  and  the  spotted  bamboos  and  the  red  lillies 
behind  the  camphor-tree,  so  as  to  be  near  her 
own  true  love,  Suleiman-bin-Daoud. 

Presently  two  Butterflies  flew  under  the  tree, 
quarrelling. 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud  heard  one  say  to  the 
other,  '  I  wonder  at  your  presumption  in  talk- 
ing like  this  to  me.  Don't  you  know  that  if  I 
stamped  with  my  foot  all  Suleiman-bin-Daoud's 
Palace  and  this  garden  here  would  immediately 
vanish  in  a  clap  of  thunder.' 

Then  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  forgot  his  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  bothersome  wives,  and 
laughed,  till  the  camphor -tree  shook,  at  the 
Butterfly's  boast.  And  he  held  out  his  finger 
and  said,  '  Little  man,  come  here.' 

The  Butterfly   was  dreadfully  frightened,  but 


234  Just  So  Stories 

he  managed  to  fly  up  to  the  hand  of  Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud,  and  clung  there,  fanning  himself. 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud  bent  his  head  and  whispered 
very  softly,  '  Little  man,  you  know  that  all  your 
stamping  wouldn't  bend  one  blade  of  grass. 
What  made  you  tell  that  awful  fib  to  your  wife  ? 
— for  doubtless  she  is  your  wife.' 

The  Butterfly  looked  at  Suleiman-bin-Daoud 
and  saw  the  most  wise  King's  eye  twinkle  like 
stars  on  a  frosty  night,  and  he  picked  up  his 
courage  with  both  wings,  and  he  put  his  head  on 
one  side  and  said,  '  O  King,  live  for  ever.  She 
is  my  wife ;  and  you  know  what  wives  are  like.' 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud  smiled  in  his  beard  and 
said,  'Yes,  /  know,  little  brother.' 

'  One  must  keep  them  in  order  somehow,' 
said  the  Butterfly,  '  and  she  has  been  quarrelling 
with  me  all  the  morning.  I  said  that  to 
quiet  her.' 

And  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  said,  '  May  it  quiet 
her.  Go  back  to  your  wife,  little  brother,  and 
let  me  hear  what  you  say.' 

Back  flew  the  Butterfly  to  his  wife,  who  was 
all  of  a  twitter  behind  a  leaf,  and  she  said,  '  He 
heard  you  !  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  himself  heard 
you  !  ' 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  235 

'  Heard  me  ! '  said  the  Butterfly.  '  Of  course 
he  did.     I  meant  him  to  hear  me.' 

'And  what  did  he  say?  Oh,  what  did 
he  say  ?  ' 

'Well,'  said  the  Butterfly,  fanning  himself 
most  importantly,  '  between  you  and  me,  my 
dear — of  course  I  don't  blame  him,  because  his 
Palace  must  have  cost  a  great  deal  and  the 
oranges  are  just  ripening, — he  asked  me  not  to 
stamp,  and  I  promised  I  wouldn't.' 

'  Gracious !  '  said  his  wife,  and  sat  quite 
quiet;  but  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  laughed  till  the 
tears  ran  down  his  face  at  the  impudence  of  the 
bad  little  Butterfly. 

Balkis  the  Most  Beautiful  stood  up  behind 
the  tree  among  the  red  lilies  and  smiled  to  her- 
self, for  she  had  heard  all  this  talk.  She  thought, 
'  If  I  am  wise  I  can  yet  save  my  Lord  from  the 
persecutions  of  these  quarrelsome  Queens,'  and 
she  held  out  her  finger  and  whispered  softly  to 
the  Butterfly's  Wife,  'Little  woman,  come' here.' 
Up  flew  the  Butterfly's  Wife,  very  frightened, 
and  clung  to  Balkis's  white  hand. 

Balkis  bent  her  beautiful  head  down  and 
whispered,  '  Little  woman,  do  you  believe  what 
your  husband  has  just  said  ? ' 


236  Just  So  Stories 

The  Butterfly's  Wife  looked  at  Balkis,  and 
saw  the  most  beautiful  Queen's  eyes  shining  like 
deep  pools  with  starlight  on  them,  and  she 
picked  up  her  courage  with  both  wings  and  said, 
'  O  Queen,  be  lovely  for  ever.  You  know 
what  men-folk  are  like.' 

And  the  Queen  Balkis,  the  Wise  Balkis  of 
Sheba,  put  her  hand  to  her  lips  to  hide  a  smile 
and  said,  '  Little  sister,  /  know.' 

'  They  get  angry,'  said  the  Butterfly's  Wife, 
fanning  herself  quickly,  '  over  nothing  at  all,  but 
we  must  humour  them,  O  Queen.  They  never 
mean  half  they  say.  If  it  pleases  my  husband 
to  believe  that  I  believe  he  can  make  Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud's  Palace  disappear  by  stamping  his 
foot,  I'm  sure  /  don't  care.  He'll  forget  all 
about  it  to-morrow.' 

'  Little  sister,'  said  Balkis,  '  you  are  quite 
right ;  but  next  time  he  begins  to  boast,  take 
him  at  his  word.  Ask  him  to  stamp,  and  see 
what  will  happen.  TVe  know  what  men-folk 
are  like,  don't  we  ?  He'll  be  very  much 
ashamed.' 

Away  flew  the  Butterfly's  Wife  to  her 
husband,  and  in  five  minutes  they  were  quar- 
relling worse  than  ever. 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  237 

'  Remember !  '  said  the  Butterfly.  '  Re- 
member what  I  can  do  if  I  stamp  my  foot.' 

'  I  don't  believe  you  one  little  bit,'  said  the 
Butterfly's  Wife.  '  I  should  very  much  like  to 
see  it  done.     Suppose  you  stamp  now.' 

'I  promised  Suleiman  -  bin  -  Daoud  that  I 
wouldn't,'  said  the  Butterfly,  '  and  I  don't  want 
to  break  my  promise.' 

'  It  wouldn't  matter  if  you  did,'  said  his  wife. 
'  You  couldn't  bend  a  blade  of  grass  with  your 
stamping.  I  dare  you  to  do  it,'  she  said. 
'  Stamp  !     Stamp  !     Stamp  !  ' 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud,  sitting  under  the  cam- 
phor-tree, heard  every  word  of  this,  and  he 
laughed  as  he  had  never  laughed  in  his  life 
before.  He  forgot  all  about  his  Queens ;  he 
forgot  all  about  the  Animal  that  came  out  of  the 
sea ;  he  forgot  about  showing  off.  He  just 
laughed  with  joy,  and  Balkis,  on  the  other 
side  of  the  tree,  smiled  because  her  own  true 
love  was  so  joyful. 

Presently  the  Butterfly,  very  hot  and  puffy, 
came  whirling  back  under  the  shadow  of  the 
camphor-tree  and  said  to  Suleiman,  '  She  wants 
me  to  stamp !  She  wants  to  see  what  will 
happen,    O  Suleiman-bin-Daoud !     You  know  I 


238  Just  So  Stories 

can't  do  it,  and  now  she'll  never  believe  a  word 
I  say.  She'll  laugh  at  me  to  the  end  of 
my  days  ! ' 

'No,  little  brother,'  said  Suleiman- bin  - 
Daoud,  '  she  will  never  laugh  at  you  again,'  and 
he  turned  the  ring  on  his  finger — just  for  the 
little  Butterfly's  sake,  not  for  the  sake  of  showing 
off, — and,  lo  and  behold,  four  huge  Djinns  came 
out  of  the  earth  ! 

'Slaves,'  said  Suleiman- bin -Daoud,  'when 
this  gentleman  on  my  finger '  (that  was  where  the 
impudent  Butterfly  was  sitting)  'stamps  his  left 
front  forefoot  you  will  make  my  Palace  and 
these  gardens  disappear  in  a  clap  of  thunder. 
When  he  stamps  again  you  will  bring  them 
back  carefully.' 

'  Now,  little  brother,'  he  said,  '  go  back  to 
your  wife  and  stamp  all  you've  a  mind  to.' 

Away  flew  the  Butterfly  to  his  wife,  who 
was  crying,  '  I  dare  you  to  do  it !  I  dare  you 
to  do  it !  Stamp  !  Stamp  now  !  Stamp  !  ' 
Balkis  saw  the  four  vast  Djinns  stoop  down  to 
the  four  corners  of  the  gardens  with  the  Palace 
in  the  middle,  and  she  clapped  her  hands  softly 
and  said,  'At  last  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  will  do 
for  the  sake  of  a  Butterfly  what  he  ought  to  have 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  239 

done  long  ago  for  his  own  sake,  and  the 
quarrelsome  Queens  will  be  frightened  ! ' 

Then  the  Butterfly  stamped.  The  Djinns 
jerked  the  Palace  and  the  gardens  a  thousand 
miles  into  the  air :  there  was  a  most  awful 
thunder-clap,  and  everything  grew  inky -black. 
The  Butterfly's  Wife  fluttered  about  in  the  dark, 
crying,  '  Oh,  I'll  be  good  !  I'm  so  sorry  I  spoke. 
Only  bring  the  gardens  back,  my  dear  darling 
husband,  and  I'll  never  contradict  again.' 

The  Butterfly  was  nearly  as  frightened  as  his 
wife,  and  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  laughed  so  much 
that  it  was  several  minutes  before  he  found  breath 
enough  to  whisper  to  the  Butterfly,  '  Stamp 
again,  little  brother.  Give  me  back  my  Palace, 
most  great  magician.' 

'  Yes,  give  him  back  his  Palace,'  said  the 
Butterfly's  Wife,  still  flying  about  in  the  dark 
like  a  moth.  '  Give  him  back  his  Palace,  and 
don't  let's  have  any  more  horrid  magic' 

'Well,  my  dear,'  said  the  Butterfly  as  bravely 
as  he  could,  '  you  see  what  your  nagging  has 
led  to.  Of  course  it  doesn't  make  any  difference 
to  me — I'm  used  to  this  kind  of  thing — but  as 
a  favour  to  you  and  to  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  I 
don't  mind  putting  things  right.' 


THIS  is  the  picture  of  the  four  gull-winged  Djinns  lifting  up  Suleiman- 
bin-Daoud's  Palace  the  very  minute  after  the  Butterfly  had  stamped.  The 
Palace  and  the  gardens  and  everything  came  up  in  one  piece  like  a  board, 
and  they  left  a  big  hole  in  the  ground  all  full  of  dust  and  smoke.  If  you 
look  in  the  corner,  close  to  the  thing  that  looks  like  a  lion,  you  will  see 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud  with  his  magic  stick  and  the  two  Butterflies  behind 
him.  The  thing  that  looks  like  a  lion  is  really  a  lion  carved  in  stone,  and 
the  thing  that  looks  like  a  milk-can  is  really  a  piece  of  a  temple  or  a  house 
or  something.  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  stood  there  so  as  to  be  out  of  the  way 
of  the  dust  and  the  smoke  when  the  Djinns  lifted  up  the  Palace.  I  don't 
know  the  Djinns'  names.  They  were  servants  of  Suleiman-bin-Daoud's 
magic  ring,  and  they  changed  about  every  day.  They  were  just  common 
gull-winged  Djinns. 

The  thing  at  the  bottom  is  a  picture  of  a  very  friendly  Djinn  called 
Akraig.  He  used  to  feed  the  little  fishes  in  the  sea  three  times  a  day, 
and  his  wings  were  made  of  pure  copper.  I  put  him  in  to  show  you  what 
a  nice  Djinn  is  like.  He  did  not  help  to  lift  the  Palace.  He  was  busy 
feeding    little  fishes   in    the  Arabian  Sea  when  it  happened. 


24O 


241 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  243 

So  he  stamped  once  more,  and  that  instant 
the  Djinns  let  down  the  Palace  and  the  gardens, 
without  even  a  bump.  The  sun  shone  on  the 
dark-green  orange  leaves;  the  fountains  played 
among  the  pink  Egyptian  lilies ;  the  birds  went 
on  singing,  and  the  Butterfly's  Wife  lay  on  her 
side  under  the  camphor -tree  waggling  her 
wings  and  panting,  '  Oh,  I'll  be  good !  I'll 
be  good ! ' 

Suleiman-bin-Daoud  could  hardly  speak  for 
laughing.  He  leaned  back  all  weak  and  hic- 
coughy,  and  shook  his  finger  at  the  Butterfly 
and  said,  '  O  great  wizard,  what  is  the  sense  of 
returning  to  me  my  Palace  if  at  the  same  time 
you  slay  me  with  mirth !  ' 

Then  came  a  terrible  noise,  for  all  the  nine 
hundred  and  ninety-nine  Queens  ran  out  of  the 
Palace  shrieking  and  shouting  and  calling  for 
their  babies.  They  hurried  down  the  great 
marble  steps  below  the  fountain,  one  hundred 
abreast,  and  the  Most  Wise  Balkis  went  statelily 
forward  to  meet  them  and  said,  '  What  is  your 
trouble,  O  Queens  ?  ' 

They  stood  on  the  marble  steps  one  hundred 
abreast  and  shouted,  '  What  is  our  trouble  ? 
We  were  living  peacefully  in  our  golden   palace, 


244  Just  So  Stories 

as  is  our  custom,  when  upon  a  sudden  the 
Palace  disappeared,  and  we  were  left  sitting  in  a 
thick  and  noisome  darkness  ;  and  it  thundered, 
and  Djinns  and  Afrits  moved  about  in  the 
darkness  !  That  is  our  trouble,  O  Head  Queen, 
and  we  are  most  extremely  troubled  on  account 
of  that  trouble,  for  it  was  a  troublesome  trouble, 
unlike  any  trouble  we  have  known.' 

Then  Balkis  the  Most  Beautiful  Queen — 
Suleiman  -  bin  -  Daoud's  Very  Best  Beloved — 
Queen  that  was  of  Sheba  and  Sabie  and  the 
Rivers  of  the  Gold  of  the  South — from  the  Desert 
of  Zinn  to  the  Towers  of  Zimbabwe — Balkis, 
almost  as  wise  as  the  Most  Wise  Suleiman-bin- 
Daoud  himself,  said,  '  It  is  nothing,  O  Queens ! 
A  Butterfly  has  made  complaint  against  his  wife 
because  she  quarrelled  with  him,  and  it  has 
pleased  our  Lord  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  to  teach 
her  a  lesson  in  low-speaking  and  humbleness, 
for  that  is  counted  a  virtue  among  the  wives  of 
the  butterflies.' 

Then  up  and  spoke  an  Egyptian  Queen — 
the  daughter  of  a  Pharoah — and  she  said,  '  Our 
Palace  cannot  be  plucked  up  by  the  roots  like 
a  leek  for  the  sake  of  a  little  insect.  No ! 
Suleiman-bin-Daoud    must     be   dead,    and   what 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  245 

we  heard  and  saw  was  the  earth  thundering  and 
darkening  at  the  news.' 

Then  Balkis  beckoned  that  bold  Queen 
without  looking  at  her,  and  said  to  her  and  to 
the  others,  '  Come  and  see.' 

They  came  down  the  marble  steps,  one 
hundred  abreast,  and  beneath  his  camphor- 
tree,  still  weak  with  laughing,  they  saw  the 
Most  Wise  King  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  rocking 
back  and  forth  with  a  Butterfly  on  either  hand, 
and  they  heard  him  say,  '  O  wife  of  my 
brother  in  the  air,  remember  after  this,  to  please 
your  husband  in  all  things,  lest  he  be  provoked 
to  stamp  his  foot  yet  again ;  for  he  has  said  that 
he  is  used  to  this  magic,  and  he  is  most  eminently 
a  great  magician — one  who  steals  away  the  very 
Palace  of  Suleiman-bin-Daoud  himself.  Go  in 
peace,  little  folk  ! '  And  he  kissed  them  on  the 
wings,  and  they  flew  away. 

Then  all  the  Queens  except  Balkis — the  Most 
Beautiful  and  Splendid  Balkis,  who  stood  apart 
smiling — fell  flat  on  their  faces,  for  they  said, 
'  If  these  things  are  done  when  a  Butterfly  is 
displeased  with  his  wife,  what  shall  be  done  to  us 
who  have  vexed  our  King  with  our  loud-speaking 
and  open  quarrelling  through  many  days  ? ' 


246  Just  So  Stories 

Then  they  put  their  veils  over  their  heads,  and 
they  put  their  hands  over  their  mouths,  and  they 
tiptoed  back  to  the  Palace  most  mousy-quiet. 

Then  Balkis — The  Most  Beautiful  and  Ex- 
cellent Balkis — went  forward  through  the  red 
lilies  into  the  shade  of  the  camphor-tree  and 
laid  her  hand  upon  Suleiman  -  bin  -  Daoud's 
shoulder  and  said,  '  O  my  Lord  and  Treasure  of 
my  Soul,  rejoice,  for  we  have  taught  the  Queens 
of  Egypt  and  Ethiopia  and  Abyssinia  and  Persia 
and  India  and  China  with  a  great  and  a  memor- 
able teaching.' 

And  Suleiman-bin-Daoud,  still  looking  after 
the  Butterflies  where  they  played  in  the  sunlight, 
said,  '  O  my  Lady  and  Jewel  of  my  Felicity, 
when  did  this  happen  ?  For  I  have  been  jesting 
with  a  Butterfly  ever  since  I  came  into  the 
garden.'  And  he  told  Balkis  what  he  had 
done. 

Balkis — The  tender  and  Most  Lovely  Balkis — 
said,  '  O  my  Lord  and  Regent  of  my  Existence, 
I  hid  behind  the  camphor-tree  and  saw  it  all. 
It  was  I  who  told  the  Butterfly's  Wife  to  ask  the 
Butterfly  to  stamp,  because  I  hoped  that  for  the 
sake  of  the  jest  my  Lord  would  make  some 
great  magic   and   that  the  Queens  would  see  it 


The  Butterfly  that  Stamped  247 

and  be  frightened.'  And  she  told  him  what  the 
Queens  had  said  and  seen  and  thought. 

Then  Sueliman-bin-Daoud  rose  up  from  his 
seat  under  the  camphor-tree,  and  stretched  his 
arms  and  rejoiced  and  said,  '  O  my  Lady  and 
Sweetener  of  my  Days,  know  that  if  I  had  made 
a  magic  against  my  Queens  for  the  sake  of  pride 
or  anger,  as  I  made  that  feast  for  all  the  animals, 
I  should  certainly  have  been  put  to  shame.  But 
by  means  of  your  wisdom  I  made  the  magic  for 
the  sake  of  a  jest  and  for  the  sake  of  a  little 
Butterfly,  and — behold — it  has  also  delivered  me 
from  the  vexations  of  my  vexatious  wives  !  Tell 
me,  therefore,  O  my  Lady  and  Heart  of  my 
Heart,  how  did  you  come  to  be  so  wise  ? ' 

And  Balkis  the  Queen,  beautiful  and  tall, 
looked  up  into  Suleiman-bin-Daoud's  eyes  and 
put  her  head  a  little  on  one  side,  just  like  ihe 
Butterfly,  and  said,  '  First,  O  my  Lord,  because 
I  loved  you  ;  and  secondly,  O  my  Lord,  because 
I  know  what  women-folk  are.' 

Then  they  went  up  to  the  Palace  and  lived 
happily  ever  afterwards. 

But  wasn't  it  clever  of  Balkis  ? 


There  was  never  a  Queen  like  Balkis, 
From  here  to  the  wide  world's  end  ; 

But  Balkis  talked  to  a  butterfly 
As  you  would  talk  to  a  friend. 

There  was  never  a  King  like  Solomon, 

Not  since  the  world  began  ; 
But  Solomon  talked  to  a  butterfly 

As  a  man  would  talk  to  a  man. 

She  was  Queen  of  Sabaea — 

And  he  was  Asia's  Lord — 
But  they  both  of  'em  talked  to  butterflies 

When  they  took  their  walks  abroad  ! 


249 


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